Aitken hails his ‘outstanding’ Sons for downing Hibs

DUMBARTON boss Ste vie A it ken has hailed his players for brushing off their Scottish Cup disappointment by dumping high- flying Hibs.

The Sons went down to a heavy defeat to Dundee during the week but showed no ill-effects as they raced into a three-goal lead against Alan Stubbs’ side.

Hibs pulled two goals back to set up a nervy finale but A it ken’s men hung on for a famous win.

“When we lost five goals at Dundee people were asking questions ,” he said.

“But we trust the players in that dressing room and we asked them again to come into day and give it everything they have got, and they did that.

“I thought that to am an, everyone of them was outstanding.

“We had to dig in deep during the second half. Hibs threw everything at us, and credit to them for comin g back in to it.

“A lot of team sat 3-0 down would not have fought their way back into it but Alan had instilled belief in them that they could get back in to it.

“In the last 10 minutes you might even have said it looked as though they deserved something, so it was a massive three points for us.”

A it ken says that his players deserve huge credit for putting a difficult spell behi nd them and digging deep when Hibs exerted heavy pressure on them late in the game.

“It has been a difficult week ,” he admitted.

“We were in good form up until the Morton game, and then we had the difficulty of the cup game during the week.

“We asked the players to respond and they did that magnificently on Saturday, and over the piece I think we shaded it.

“This is a division that is unforgiving with the quality that is in it, and you saw that Hibs were never out of the game—even at 3-0 down.

“It was nerve-racking towards the end but what we have go there is a good group of players who are honest and they work so hard for each other, for the club and for myself, and they got their re ward s.

“The criticism was disappointing after the Dundee game.We are part-time and we had players working before going up to Dundee to face them.

“It was a disappointing result. We went there with high hopes to get into the next round of the cup and we gave away cheap goals which we had not done all season.

“But we will be judged over 36 league games, I have said that all season. The players give their all and that is all I can ask from them .”