Roberts praises players’ professionalism as Hibs Women make great start

Hibernian head coach Chris Roberts praised his players for not only beating Swansea City 5-0, but being professional enough to achieve it on a poor surface in Romania.

The win got the Edinburgh club’s Uefa Women’s Champions League qualifying campaign off to a perfect start. Goals by Rachael Small, Katey Turner and Lucy Graham put Hibs three up at half-time, with Siobhan Hunter and Graham adding two more in the second period.

“Everything about the performance was positive,” Roberts said after the opening Group 2 game. “Five goals and a clean sheet – and time to recover before the next game on Friday. It was a fantastic effort from the whole team. In the first half Kirsty Smith and Abi Harrison caused them so many problems down the lefthand side with their speed.

“We went really aggressive, which was a gamble, but Swansea never got a foothold and we were able to pin them back from the first whistle.

“They are a better team than the scoreline suggests, so that tells you how well the girls played. We just didn’t give their attacking players a chance.”

Hibs were two up after 18 minutes and Graham’s penalty just before half-time ensured the players could conserve their energy ahead of the remaining group games.

Roberts was also pleased by how well his players had adapted to the surface in a game which kicked off at 11am – 9am in Scotland – to avoid the afternoon heat in Cluj.

“The pitch was terrible,” he added. “I think there had been a big festival on it and there were chunks of grass missing. There were bald bits all over the park, although the ball ran fairly true on it. We just asked the girls to be professional.

“A less experienced team might have got worked up about how bad it was – but because there wasn’t a lot of grass the ball moved really fast, which I think helped us.”

Hibs now meet Ukrainian champions WFC-2 Kharkiv on Friday, followed by group hosts Olimpia Cluj in what is likely to be the group decider on Monday. Only the winner of the group will definitely go through to the last 32.

Olimpia Cluj defeated WFC-2 Kharkiv 1-0 in the other Group 2 match yesterday.