Our trust in the players paid off, says gaffer Ross
Jack Ross paid tribute to his Hibs players after watching them dig in to end their miserable league run.
Beaten in each of their last five league games before yesterday’s trip to McDiarmid Park, the Premier Sports Cup finalists looked on course to make it a round halfdozen when they fell behind to St Johnstone in the first half.
That would have matched the 2014
sequence set under Terry Butcher – the year they were relegated from the top flight.
However, as the relieved manager said, they set aside the frustrations of hitting the woodwork three times and having two goals chopped off to come from behind and win.
“The run we have been on meant that we would have taken any sort of win today,” said Ross, acknowledging the impact Craig Bryson’s sending off near halftime had on the game.
“We got that and absolutely deserved it I think in all facets of the game, so the result was the be-all and end-all but it was a really good performance as well.
“I think this period was one for us to have that trust in the players.
“I spoke before in the run-up, when you lose that number of games sometimes you can feel that they are losing faith within the group.
“It has not been like that, though.
“They have been nice and bright and upbeat in training. I think they showed that here in the manner of their performance.
“They showed a lot of trust.
“Other than a five, sixminute spell around 70 minutes when things got a little frantic, I thought we were excellent. But, other than that, we played well and created so many opportunities.
“The amount of time it took was a frustration but thankfully we got there in the end.”
Ross had particular praise for Kevin Nisbet, who had two goals disallowed before netting the all-important equaliser for Hibs.
“Kevin has had a difficult period but he knows how much faith I have in him. He is still a young man,” he said.
“I thought he was excellent in his overall play today.
“The first one, offside was maybe a close decision. The second one I have not looked at but to keep coming back was great and his finish for the equaliser was what he does.”
“Both goals were of real high quality irrespective of playing against 10 men.”
“The great thing for me overall, too, is that all the subs had an impact on the game, which shows how much quality we’ve got.”