Maloney in warning to Hibs flops

SHAUN MALONEY warned his team that they are playing to save Hibernian’s season and their careers after losing the Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle.

The 3-1 defeat against Hearts consigned them to the bottom six in the Premiership and they now need to win the Scottish Cup to secure European football for the next campaign.

The Easter Road side face their arch-rivals in the semifinal at Hampden this Saturday looking to salvage their season.

Hibs took an early lead through Drey Wright’s effort but collapsed as Andy

Halliday’s brace and Stephen Kingsley’s goal sealed third spot for Robbie Neilson’s side.

Maloney was angered by his team’s display and warned them that standards cannot continue to drop.

‘The performance in the second half I can’t accept — and I won’t,’ said the Hibs boss.

‘We can’t accept that, we can’t think that is going to be good enough to make the top four, to challenge for Europe.

‘I understand we have some young players but they have to learn very quickly that it matters — to them, to the club and to their careers.

‘I can understand at this time of the season results are magnified. When I came in and we were seventh, the traits that

I saw we have at times eradicated. But in the big moments, under the biggest pressure, those traits come out. That is why we are seventh again.

‘Because of what we have done and the team have done, we have an opportunity to put it right very, very quickly.’

Maloney (pictured) admitted he could be forced to ring the changes for the semi-final after this poor performance.

‘It will definitely have an impact,’ he said.

‘I think training is a big thing and behaviours are, too, but the biggest one is how people play in games will generally dictate selection and that should always be the case, but we will look at that next week.

‘Some people had a difficult day but we’ll need a full squad next week. However, generally, performances will dictate if you stay in the team or not.’

Lamenting how his team fell out of the game at Tynecastle, the Hibs manager added: ‘In every team you have to compete and it’s in those biggest moments when you go

2-1 down at your rivals that you have to still compete. ‘Today we showed we didn’t. We have to change that very quickly and we have an opportunity next week in the semi-final.

‘What I saw today is the reason why we are in seventh.

‘We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and next week to make sure we don’t perform like we did in the second half.’