NEIL Lennon will make changes for his side’s Betfred Cup quarter-final tie after being angered by Hibernian’s second-half collapse against Motherwell.
Anthony Stokes capitalised on slack defending to put Hibs two ahead in the 57th minute after earlier netting a penalty, but Lennon admitted his side “went missing” in the final half hour as they drew 2-2.
Louis Moult headed home Craig Tanner’s free-kick from two yards out in the 64th minute and rolled Efe Ambrose to fire home from 20 yards 10 minutes later. Hibs continued to look vulnerable, although they composed themselves in the final five minutes and Stokes came closest to netting a hat-trick with a free-kick.
But head coach Lennon was left fuming with his players for failing to see out the match as they went four Ladbrokes Premiership games without victory.
With centre-backs Darren McGregor and Liam Fontaine out injured, the Hibs head coach has few options to change things in defence but he vowed to refresh his team for Tuesday’s visit of Livingston.
“There will be changes, how many I don’t know. We can’t push the panic button yet because we have been playing quite well,” said Lennon. “We were okay for an hour of the game but as soon as Motherwell score, we seemed to wilt. Instead of going ‘let’s go and get another one’ or see the game out, we don’t do either.
“The second goal John [McGinn] dives in, Efe dives in, Ofir [Marciano] gets beat near post. It’s just unacceptable.”
“I’d love to go out there and do it myself but I can’t, I’m too old, too heavy. You are barking instructions and trying to influence the game with your substitutions but I need a bit of leadership and it was lacking.
“I’m angry. I was frustrated the last two games because we played well and didn’t win. But I can’t accept that last half hour and I apologise to the supporters.”
Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson continued his habit of making influential substitutions with both Tanner and Gael Bigirimana coming off the bench to set up goals, each grabbing an assist.
“We were brave with our substitutions,” Robinson said. “I always try to be as positive as we can, I put Tanner on just behind the two strikers and I thought he caused them a massive amount of problems.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here