TOP OF THE FLOPS
Lennon takes a pop at ‘boy band’ Hibs for a ‘pathetic’ performance
NEIL LENNON accused his players of re-releasing the worst of their ‘boy band’ efforts as Hibernian crashed out of the William Hill Scottish Cup to Aberdeen.
The Easter Road boss was furious at his team tuning out for the first 30 minutes of yesterday’s semi-final, falling 2-0 behind before getting their act together and drawing level by the hour.
A strike from Jonny Hayes which took a wild deflection off Darren McGregor in 86 minutes sent the Dons into the Final.
And in an extraordinary post-match dissection of his Championship title-winning team’s display, Lennon returned to an issue he thought he had rooted out of the club after his appointment last summer.
The Hibernian supporters applauded their players, seven of whom were starters in last year’s glory final against Rangers, at the end of an enthralling game. However, Lennon offered no words of comfort. ‘It was pathetic — utterly pathetic,’ raged the Easter Road boss. ‘It was a semi-final, the pitch was good. We’ve been playing on quagmires all
season. I wanted the players to go out and express themselves.
‘The first two goals, Aberdeen didn’t have to do anything. We gave them the goals. You get setbacks, losing the early goal, but it didn’t worry me because I have character in there. They just didn’t show it. The first two goals were schoolboy stuff.
‘I thought I was getting there but some old, bad habits started creeping back in there. Players hiding, miscontrolling the ball, not being physical enough.
‘We didn’t turn up for 30 minutes, which really annoyed me, then for the next 60 we were the better team by a long way. We scored two wonderful goals.
‘But you can’t give any team a two-goal start in a semi-final. We got it back. The game could have gone either way but Aberdeen got a huge slice of luck for their winning goal. It happens.
‘But for the first 30 minutes… I don’t know, they need to have a good look at themselves. I don’t mind conceding a goal after one minute because you have 89 to get back in. But we didn’t show any responsibility.
‘Two players did, (Marvin) Bartley and (Dylan) McGeouch. The rest looked like the boy band they’ve been over the last three or four years.’
Lennon hauled off Fraser Fyvie, who refused to accept his substitute’s coat, and turned to Grant Holt to transform Hibs’ fortunes on 33 minutes. The veteran’s header made it 2-1 at half-time and he set up McGeouch for the equaliser.
‘It takes a 36-year-old to come on and change the game for us,’ said Lennon. ‘I thought he was brilliant. We make the change and suddenly we come alive.
‘(Fyvie) got thrown under the bus by the rest. I had to sacrifice somebody. It could’ve been four or five of them. It just happened to be Fraser, so the rest owe him a huge apology. But it was the right decision to make.
‘They might get accolades from the punters but not from me. Not today. They should have won. The opportunity was there. They will have loads of regrets about the game. They can go home and watch it again.’
Lennon revealed that Efe Ambrose was restricted in his performance all day because he suffered an allergic reaction, while McGeouch was forced off by injury following his equaliser.
‘That’s been the story of Dylan’s career,’ said Lennon. ‘Efe had an allergic reaction to something before the game. His eyes were really red and his face quite puffy. He took some sort of medication at half-time and didn’t look his usual self.’