Lee: we’ve no excuses... but i’LL stick it out
UNDER-PRESSURE Lee Johnson has vowed to “stick it out” at Hibs after a derby drubbing ended their hopes of silverware in January.
Johnson admitted there were no excuses as he slammed their defending in a 3-0 defeat inflicted thanks to goals from Josh Ginnelly, Toby Sibbick and Lawrence Shankland.
A damaging afternoon also left the Easter Road boss fearing Rocky Bushiri could have broken a leg after Cammy Devlin’s injury-time challenge.
The spotlight is now firmly on Johnson, who admitted Ryan Porteous has potentially played his last game for the club with Blackburn, Udinese, Watford and Toulouse vying for his signature.
Johnson said: “It’s my job to keep believing in these lads. We’ve got to finish third, fourth in the league.
“We’re not hiding from the fact that there’s a lot to do at this football club.
“There’s got to be improvement. I enjoy my job and I’m here fighting every day to try to lift everyone. Of course, there are going to be question marks on myself.
“I know the challenges and the hurdles we’ve faced. I’m going to continue and stick it out.”
Hibs are nine head-toheads without a win over Hearts and Johnson added: “It’s been too long since we won a derby. I told the players there’s no excuses.
We had international caps – 93 for Aiden McGeady, Scotland international Kevin Nisbet, Chris Cadden has played for Scotland and Marijan Cabraja for Croatia, Elie Youan has gone through the French national system, Jimmy Jeggo is an Australia international.
“So 11 against 11, we weren’t a million miles off.
“We need to get that first goal more often than we’re getting it. And we did have opportunities to do that.
“We hit the post and their first opportunity came from a breakaway.
“The second goal was really poor defending, too easy for Shankland.
“It was a decent finish but the difference up to that point was the clinical nature inside the box.
“In terms of control, will and skill, we had a lot of it. But we’re out of a cup and extremely disappointed.
“No one wants to hear me talking about the positives. Hearts are just that little bit ahead of us at the moment and we need to bridge that gap.”
Bushiri was carried off in injury time and Johnson said: “Touch wood he hasn’t broken his leg but it certainly looked like that from the challenge.”
Asked if the derby was Porteous’ last game for Hibs, the boss added: “I honestly don’t know. I thought again he was very good against Hearts.”