Maloney claims this was Hibs’ best showing under his watch
SHAUN MALONEY described Hibs’ semi-final performance as ‘by far’ the best of his four months in charge of the Edinburgh club.
And the Easter Road manager (below) insisted he knows what is required to consistently raise the standard of play for next season.
Stung by a second consecutive derby defeat to Hearts, Maloney took some consolation from the ovation given to his players by the chunk of fans who remained inside Hampden after the game.
Having fallen behind to two early Hearts strikes, Maloney was proud of both the quick response that saw Chris
Cadden pull back a goal and also the way his team adapted to going a man down in the wake of Joe Newell’s red card.
‘Both today and last week hurts a lot,’ he said. ‘I think in the past three or four months, there have been signs of progress, but also moments where that progress has stalled.
‘Today doesn’t feel like that at all. This was by far the best performance I’ve had. I’ve known for a while the areas that I need to be better in.
‘I’ve worked extremely hard with the players we have, the young players, but we all have to make sure that come next summer, and come pre-season, we are a lot stronger in certain areas so that when we have performances like this, we take advantage.’
Installed a couple of weeks after the surprise decision to sack Jack Ross in the build-up to the League Cup final in December, Maloney’s team have won just once in the league this year and will play out the season in the bottom six.
‘I understand it’s a difficult situation with five games left in terms of not making top six, but we have to bring the intensity that we brought here to every game.
‘Part of the problem this season is the performance level and desire and intensity has not been there.
‘If we add the right level of player, we will be much stronger next season.
‘Everyone at the club will feel hurt. I think we’ve worked extremely hard, literally from February 1, that we look a very different team in certain areas.
‘I know exactly what we need to get to a point where consistently we can outperform the teams above us.
‘We have to remember how we feel now. And make sure that it doesn’t happen again next season.’
Lewis Stevenson, currently the longest-serving player at Hibs, believes the applause from their own fans at the end of a hard-fought loss confirmed the team restored a little bit of pride at Hampden — after admitting their display in the last Edinburgh derby was a disgrace. The Easter Road stalwart set up Cadden to pull a goal back after the two quick strikes from Tynecastle pair Ellis Simms and Stephen Kingsley and left the national stadium feeling his side had at least put in a performance worthy of the occasion.
Last week, manager Maloney had been hugely critical of his side’s second-half display, and their mentality, following that 3-1 league loss to their city rivals, and Stevenson took some consolation from the fact yesterday’s display was night and day from that Tynecastle showing.
‘He (Maloney) was 100-percent justified,’ said the 34-yearold. ‘Last week was a different kind of performance. The second half then was disgraceful at times. Leaving everything on the pitch at Hampden was the least that could have been asked for.
‘I have played there a few times and played against Hearts a few times. To lose to your main rivals at Hampden and still get clapped off the pitch shows how much we put in. It shows what the fans thought.
‘We just fell short again, but it wasn’t for the want of trying. Effort is sometimes all the fans ask for. Even with 10 men, we still caused them problems.
‘We wanted to put a different kind of stamp on the game and we gave everything. Even so, to be where we want to be, we still have to be better.
‘It came down to moments of quality from them. The save from Craig Gordon was unbelievable and their two finishes were amazing.’ Gordon’s match-winning stop came on 55 minutes when he got his right hand to a Ryan Porteous header and instinctively flicked it onto the post, smothering the rebound. ‘I had started celebrating,’ groaned Stevenson. ‘I was at the halfway line and I thought it had hit the back of the net and bounced out. It was an unbelievable save from Craig Gordon.’
Newell’s sending-off with 25 minutes to play for a second bookable offence didn’t help Hibs’ cause.
Stevenson felt it might have been unfair, but admitted he hadn’t watched the footage back. When he does, he might change his mind. It was a stupid tackle from the midfielder on Barrie McKay.