David Gray reckons he has never seen a ‘Hibs team having so many clear-cut chances at Celtic Park,’ as he laments his side’s missed opportunity…
The visitors remarkably tallied up nine shots on target in the match, one more than Brendan Rodgers’ men as Gray’s relegation-threatened Hibees passed up several chances.
Kasper Schmeichel had his busiest day
Man of the Match Kasper Schmeichel had his busiest day as a Celtic goalkeeper domestically since arriving as a free agent in the summer.
Schmeichel produced two key saves to deny Ukrainian forward Mykola Kuharevich opening the scoring as the Hibs frontman’s darting runs caused havoc to Celtic’s backline.
Hoops record signing Arne Engels punished the opposition who had squandered the chance to take the lead. Alistair Johnston’s pinpoint cross found the feet of the Belgian midfielder who broke the deadlock.
Despite Hibs skipper Joe Newell’s own-goal courtesy of a dangerous Luke McCowan cross which decapitated any prospect of Hibs taking points from the encounter , the visitors still had decisive opportunities to reduce the deficit.
But, Hoops shotstopper Kasper Schmeichel, who has now kept 12 clean sheets in 15 Scottish Premiership matches, proved to be unstoppable despite David Gray’s side’s staggering 14 shots.
Kyogo made sure of the three points
Kyogo sealed an important three points for the hosts delicately chipping the ball over new Hibs no.1 Jordan Smith for the clinical finisher’s sixth goal of the league campaign.
Meanwhile, Celtic widened the gap between themselves and Aberdeen to nine points following the Dons dropping more points courtesy of a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie against St Johnstone.
For the Scottish champions opposition, their positive attacking performance at Paradise does not reflect their league position. Due to rivals Hearts’ 2–0 victory over Dundee yesterday afternoon, Hibs languish at the bottom of the table on 13 points.
Speaking post-match David Gray bemoaned missed opportunities but praised his team’s approach to their encounter with Celtic.
“I can’t remember a Hibs team having so many clear-cut chances at Celtic Park”
“It’s quite difficult to digest at the moment because you know coming here that when you get chances you need to take them,” he said.
“I can’t remember a Hibs team having so many clear-cut chances at Celtic Park, so much so their keeper was man of the match. They got one chance early on and it goes in. We had numerous and didn’t score. That’s the difference.”
“It’s difficult to leave here with nothing. There’s really disappointment in the dressing-room. The players deserve a lot of credit for their effort. But if we take our chances in the game, it could have looked so much different.”
Gray explained, “there’s no point feeling sorry for yourself. Kyogo has a one-on-one late in the game and it’s a goal. But that’s why he plays in the Champions League for Celtic.”
“It’s about staying calm in that final action in front of goals. I have to take the positive side out of it – and that’s the way we created those chances.”
Conor Spence
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A three nil home win on paper, looks like another comfortable, routine victory for ourselves?
How the game played out, was anything but, and a very strange game all round?
Course there was plenty of opportunities to have scored more than just the 3, again to indicate that it was one way traffic, in a one sided encounter?
Yet when you throw into the mix, the amount of untidy play, and having to depend upon a well deserved man of the match performance from kasper, and a different picture of the game starts to emerge?
The best part of our success to date this season, has been built upon, how solid we tend to be defensively?
Yesterday we were nowhere near where we should have been, which has to improve hugely, with the week ahead that we are facing?
Kasper was outstanding, in bailing ourselves out, of way to many situations, where we were all over the place defensively?
Now credit has to be given to hibs in the manner that they were able to use the ball so well, to cut through ourselves, even if it was a worrying sight to be seeing, and not expected whatsoever?
Even with so much slack play on show from ourselves, we did produce limited moments of real quality, apart from the saves of kasper?
The sublime finish from kyogo, was worth the entrance money on it’s own?
Delighted with the 3 points, even if we would have settled for the scoreline beforehand?
Still left with plenty of food for thought, for the week ahead all the same imo?