Han so low
“It was a difficult day. We need to put this to bed now. It was a chance to get to a cup final but it’s gone now and it’s important to start putting points on the board in the league.
“It’s down to small margins. We’ve had a lot of draws in there. But we’ve definitely dropped our standards in games, like Livingston when losing two quick goals really put us on the back foot.
“We need to cut it out right away and put in a 90-minute performance, which we haven’t done for a while.”
There were some moments at Hampden. Hibs started pretty well then lost two quick goals, one of them looking suspiciously offside.
They managed to stage a kind of first-half fightback when Melker Hallberg notched but the same old frailties appeared soon after.
At 3-1 the game looked done. At 4-1 Hibs fans streamed to the exits – only to race back when Flo Kamberi headed home.
That was when things got a bit weird at Hampden. Heckingbottom’s men had a couple of big chances to make things a tad awkward for a Celtic side who were strolling around and chuckling to themselves at the succession of efforts cannoning off posts or saved by Chris Maxwell.
Sure enough the rebellion didn’t last long but it was a sign of life at Hibs, evidence all may not be quite lost and the squad are playing for their manager.
Whether it helps Heckingbottom remains to be seen. He was under pressure before Hampden and for a while it looked like there might have been a tipping point when Celtic were threatening to run riot.
The spirited second-half show might be a temporary life raft for the gaffer but it’s still going to take a heck of a lot of paddling to get him to the safety of dry land.
Hanlon refused to be drawn on the manager’s future as he picked over the bones of defeat. When asked if the heat on the man in the dugout was harsh in the circumstances he said: “I don’t know. It’s not something for me to comment on.
“We’re just bitterly disappointed not to be in a cup final. We gave it our all but conceding three goals in the first half put us on the back foot.
“We were even more open in the second half.
“There were a lot of claims for offside at the second goal and I thought he was offside at the time.
“The first half put us in a difficult position so we had to go for it after the break.
“The third goal was a killer for us. We got back into the game. It was a bit of a scrappy goal but we kept it alive and got away the finish. It got us back in the game when it didn’t really look like we were going to do that.
“If we had got in at 2-1 it would have helped but unfortunately they scored a third goal before half-time.
“We were a bit more open with two strikers on the pitch and it left a lot of space for Celtic to exploit.
“But we had to go for it, there was a cup final place up for grabs.
“We had a couple of chances at 4-2 that could have made it interesting towards the end.
“But they got the fifth goal and that was it.”