Marciano would have saved the day ‘easily’ but for big deflection
HIBERNIAN goalkeeper Ofir Marciano insists he would have saved Jonny Hayes’ match-winning shot easily had it not taken the cruellest of deflections off defender Darren McGregor to end the Easter Road side’s defence of the Scottish Cup.
The Israeli admits Neil Lennon’s side fell into a state of panic after gifting the opener to Adam Rooney after 12 seconds and losing a cheap goal from a Ryan Christie free-kick on 25 minutes, but they battled back through efforts from substitute Grant Holt and Dylan McGeouch before that 86th-minute winner.
Marciano forced a fine stop from rival keeper Joe Lewis in stoppage time with a header from a Jason Cummings corner as Hibs poured forward in search of a lifeline and concedes the nature of defeat was incredibly hard to take.
‘I didn’t see the header,’ he said. ‘I heard the fans getting excited but, then, the goalkeeper made a good save.
‘It would have been special, but it wasn’t to be.
‘We started the game poorly and I thought we panicked quite a bit, but you can see we have a really good group who put their heart into the game. You saw how brave we were to fight back into it.
‘It is hard because we did brilliantly to come back and score two goals. I felt we would win it and go to the final, but then we lost an unlucky goal.
‘I had it covered until it hit the defender and there wasn’t much I could do about it.
‘These things can happen in football.
‘I am very proud of the way we played, but disappointed that we lost.’