Ross satisfied with point after Hibernian battle back to draw with St Mirren

Posted Sunday, February 02, 2020 by PA

Hibernian head coach Jack Ross admits he was content with a point against St Mirren after seeing his side battle back from two goals down.

Conor McCarthy and Tony Andreu had put the visitors in a commanding position after only 18 minutes but the Edinburgh outfit managed to bring themselves level before the interval with efforts from Scott Allan and Christian Doidge.

Chances were hard to come by in a tighter second half but Ross, who handed second-half debuts to Paul McGinn, Greg Docherty and Marc McNulty, was pleased with his team’s reaction amid a demanding fixture schedule.

He said: “We have an expectation and an ambition to try to win every game here and our home record in recent times has been encouraging, so we come out of the game wanting to win it.

“But the way it started and finding ourselves two behind, there is encouragement in the fact the players showed strength of character when over the course of the game they have not played to the level they have done recently.

“We’re are in the middle of a punishing schedule, I think that’s our fifth game in 13 days.

“We keep trying to freshen it a little bit to make sure there is some energy to it but we were reactive to everything today. It happens.”

Ross was also delighted with his deadline day signings from a busy Friday that also saw striker Flo Kamberi move to Rangers on loan.

He said: “It is quite obvious to say everyone would agree we have brought in three good players in terms of their pedigree within Scottish football – different ages, different positions.

“I did not have any preconceived plans about how much they would play today but they all ended up playing a decent part.

“Greg and Paul showed what they can give us – the fans already know what Marc can do.”

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin shouldered some of the blame after his side failed to hold on to their lead.

He said: “I thought we started the game really well, we came here to try and press Hibs and we did that.

“We forced them into mistakes and we had numerous attacks in the first 20 minutes.

“I was delighted to get a goal in front, never mind finding ourselves two up. It was two really well worked goals.

“At that moment in time we carried on doing what we were doing but in hindsight I’m kind of kicking myself a bit that maybe we should have come off the game for five minutes after going two in front to let it settle down again.

“We didn’t, we went and pressed high again and allowed Scott Allan too much space and that’s what leads to the first goal.”