Ross: Error cost us, but now we prepare for semi
Hibs boss Jack Ross has backed Ryan Porteous to respond to his costly error in the defeat to St Johnstone in the correct manner.
The Scotland squad player gave the ball straight to Glenn Middleton with a stray pass inside his own box, and the on-loan Ranger made no mistake by scoring the only goal of a drab encounter.
Hibs return to action in next Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Dundee United at Hampden.
And Ross insists Porteous will not dwell on his mistake.
Ross said: “It is just split-second decisionmaking that people do all over the pitch.
“When you do that closer to your own goal it sometimes has greater consequences.
“It was the wrong decision from Ryan to try to play a pass and I actually thought at first it was a bad clearance.
“It’s not, he’s tried to pick a pass, it was the wrong decision and we have been punished.
“Ryan cares about his football and he spends a lot of time working with myself and John Potter.
“He is prepared to take responsibility to get better but he also has broad shoulders.
“He takes criticism, sometimes wrongly, but he handles it and has matured.
“He has bounced back this season already and I think he will do that again.”
Despite the defeat, Ross insists there was nothing in the game that overly concerned him ahead of their last four tussle against United at the national stadium.
He added: “We didn’t play well. We didn’t do enough to win, but I don’t necessarily think we deserved to lose.
“I don’t think St Johnstone did much more than us, there wasn’t a lot created and it wasn’t a good game to watch.
“But we came out on the wrong side because of the defensive lapse, otherwise it would probably have been 0-0.”
Hibs were without 17-goal forward Kevin Nisbet after the Scotland cap failed to recover from an ankle knock he sustained in last weekend’s quarter-final victory over Motherwell
But Ross is hopeful the marksman will be available to face United.
He added: “Kevin is OK. He picked up an ankle knock against Motherwell.
“But it’s still irritating him and we hope that it settles for next week.”
Ross, meanwhile, admits he was perplexed by the yellow card dished out to him by referee Greg Aitken at the end of the game.
He added: “I didn’t swear, didn’t raise my voice, don’t think I was aggressive but I’ll accept it and move on.”