Jackson insists Hibs players can handle fan expectations
HIBERNIAN defender Adam Jackson has said that ‘anxiety’ from the home supporters was not the reason the hosts were held to a draw with St Johnstone, contrary to head coach Paul Heckingbottom’s assertion.
Following Saturday’s 2-2 stalemate, in which the visitors twice fought back from being behind, Heckingbottom claimed an unease among the Easter Road faithful penetrated the collective mind of his team and was a factor in the result.
After being on the ropes during the latter stages, Hibs could not prevent Jason Kerr from heading in an equaliser with the last touch of the game.
There had even been overt displeasure from the home fans on the hour mark when the sight of Scott Allan being replaced triggered audible jeers.
However, Jackson (inset), who had opened the scoring with a 25th-minute header from Stevie Mallan’s free-kick, does not agree with Heckingbottom’s post-match comments.
“I don’t think so,” replied the 25-year-old, when asked if anxiety had seeped through.
“We’ve all played a lot of games now, we’re all grown men, thick-skinned.
“We have to do ourselves and play our game - play how we want to play in attack and in defence. It’s down to us.
“It’s a big club with a lot of fans and they expect, which is fair enough.
“We’re a big club and we want to do well, we should be up there and that’s what we’re aiming for every it
aftermath of the break when Chris Long manipulated an exhausted Accies defence to curl in a third and for the second period the Fir Park side dictated the ebb and flow of the game as they worked the numerical advantage to their favour.
It was the first league win of the campaign for a Motherwell side who dominated this one with plenty of food for thought for Stephen Robinson. The Fir Park manager had lamented a sick bug that had gone through the changing room in the build-up to the game but there were no obvious signs of it in the performance.
The illness kept out Richard Tait and Jake Carroll, which meant a first league start in eight months for Hartley with the Motherwell captain keen on hanging on to the shirt. “I’ve had to be patient and waited for my chance but I’ve scored a goal, we won as a team against our rivals in a convincing performance and hopefully I put myself into contention for next Saturday,” said the defender. “It was mentally challenging [to be out of the team] , but I’m 31 years old and played over 300 games so I’ve seen it all before.”
What he hasn’t seen until this season is the application of strict handball rules that could well see penalties awarded with significant frequency.
“I went to a referee meeting with Keith Lasley in Edinburgh a few weeks ago and the guy said if there are any handballs at all then they are going to get given,” he
remarked. “[For the one I conceded] the boy stepped on my toe. I’ve gone ‘ouch’ and he just flicked the ball and it hit my hand. I accepted it but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Fortunately, we’ve managed to get a third goal in the second half to ease the pressure.
“They say keep your hands in a natural position but you wrestle with people sometimes – that is a natural position. A lot of penalties will get given.
“I was too far away to see our penalty but I was told it would’ve been a goal. I felt it was the right decision, but at the same time what can the lad do about it?”
Theysaykeepyourhands inanaturalpositionbut youwrestlewithpeople sometimes-thatisa naturalposition.Alotof penaltieswillgetgiven