Hibs show no ill effects from Covid outbreak

Jack Ross believes Hibernian have got themselves back on track since their Covid-enforced break.

The Easter Road side have won two and lost two of their matches since returning to action following a three-and-ahalf week shutdown caused by an outbreak of the disease among their squad.

Prior to that, Hibs had lost four matches on the spin. However, despite 1-0 defeats to Ross County and Rangers over the past week-and-a-half, Ross believes his sixth-place team have shown enough overall to suggest they are well over their October form dip.

He said: “Since the Covid-enforced break we’ve looked like a better team. We look a strong team again.

“We’ve had a mixed bag in terms of results – two wins and two defeats – but I think we’ve got a strong case to say we shouldn’t have lost the two we lost.

“Players are generally quite honest and understanding of where they’re at so I’ve got a group who are really disappointed because they know they should have taken something from the Rangers game, but they also understand that as a team they look pretty strong at the moment, and that gives us encouragement.

“We’ve got to turn that into a consistent run of results again though to push us back up the table.”

Hibs’ cause should be aided by the availability of key striker Christian Doidge for tomorrow’s match at home to Motherwell after a twogame suspension.

The Welshman was sent off against County last week in only his second substitute appearance following almost four months on the sidelines with an Achilles injury.

Ross said: “Christian was actually scheduled to play a bit of a bounce game on Tuesday, but he missed it through illness so he’s not having the best of luck at the moment.

“Hopefully, he’ll be fine for tomorrow which gives us another option in the forward area that I think we need.”

Hibs, meanwhile, have been given an additional 2,000 tickets for the Premier Sports Cup final against Celtic.

The Easter Road club expressed disappointment last week after they were not offered the chance of a 50-50 split for the showpiece match at Hampden on December 19, with their initial allocation of 17,500 around a third of the national stadium’s 51,000 capacity.

Manager Jack Ross branded the decision “unfathomable” given that Hibs have recent history of selling out at least half of Hampden for cup finals.

Their first batch of tickets were all snapped up this week, but Hibs officials have been in dialogue with the authorities and announced they had secured more seats for their supporters.