Doidge thrilled to end goal drought as persistence delivers pay-off
JACK ROSS appreciates that many folk struggled to believe him when he said he wasn’t concerned by Christian Doidge’s scoring drought. A career-record 15-game stretch without a goal just cannot be considered a good look for a centre-forward. However, Hibernian continued to keep Aberdeen at arm’s length in the pursuit of third spot. Doidge was performing to expectations in every other aspect of his role within the Easter Road team and Ross has never been the type of manager that’s prone to panic. Furthermore, perhaps Ross knew a little more about Doidge’s previous in such circumstances. That there could be free-scoring fun ahead whenever the barren spell ended. The Welshman netted the equaliser in a draw at Livingston that saw Hibernian extend their advantage over Aberdeen to seven points going into the split. Doidge mustered only two Betfred Cup goals in his first 15 Hibs appearances. But a hat-trick against St Johnstone and goals in each of his next four games followed. Doidge explained: ‘I am very streaky — so hopefully this will mean I go on another run. ‘Throughout my career I have gone through spells like this. I can’t really put my finger on why. ‘This one at 15 is probably the longest, so it was nice to bring that to an end. ‘It wasn’t overly playing on my mind. Obviously, when you step off the pitch you’re disappointed — especially if you’ve missed good chances. ‘But I’ve been on goal droughts before — many times — and every centre-forward goes through them. ‘Some of my finishes haven’t been great, some of the keepers have pulled off nice saves. But I had to just persevere.’
With the pressure off thanks to a pep talk with Ross on Friday, Doidge cancelled out Craig Sibbald’s opener with his eighth goal of the season. A woeful Ryan Porteous header back to Ofir Marciano had let Sibbald in to give Livingston a 28th-minute lead. Josh Doig pinched possession from a ponderous Nicky Devlin four minutes from the interval to set up Doidge for his first goal since mid-December. David Martindale’s men have five points to make up after the split and should host fourthplaced Aberdeen when the fixtures are announced. Fourth place is assured of a UEFA Conference League qualifying berth and Marvin Bartley insists Livingston are ready to challenge for that spot even if he doesn’t quite have his affairs in order. Bartley said: ‘It would be a great achievement but my passport has run out! Hopefully, the club will buy me a new one. ‘We’re heading for the team above us and we’re that bit closer to them now. It’s already a huge achievement for this football club to finish in the top six two years in a row.’