'I can't defend that' - Hibs boss red card reaction as Celtic loss deals hammer blow to Euro hopes
Reigning champions move level with Hearts - but Easter Road side have their own concerns
Hibs boss David Gray insists he cannot defend Jamie McGrath for the red-card challenge that contributed to a narrow home loss to Celtic. And Gray admits that Falkirk are now “breathing down our necks” in the desperate scramble for a side-door entry to European football.
Confessing the Hibs must now win all three remaining games AND rely on Motherwell dropping points over the closing stretch of the season, Gray – his team sitting just two points clear of Falkirk ahead of Saturday’s away clash with the Bairns – made no attempt to defend midfielder McGrath for his “dangerous” lunge on Celtic fullback Alistair Johnston with the game barely 20 minutes old. The reigning champions went on to win 2-1 despite Joe Newell equalising the visitors’ opener in first-half injury time.
‘No malice - but a definite red card’
Gray, who has seen his team pick up FOUR red cards in three straight defeats to Aberdeen, Hearts and now Celtic, said: “I can't defend the decision for the red card. I think it's a definite red card. Where he catches him.
“I don't think there's malice in it. It's not intentional, the type of foul, but it's a definite dangerous tackle. A definite red card.
“And everything I spoke about all week, about giving yourself the best possible chance to win the game. To do that, you need to keep 11 players on the pitch.
“So that’s in Aberdeen, down to 10 men after whatever it was, 16 minutes, 14 minutes in the derby, then down to nine men, and then today, did we get to 20 minutes? I'm not sure, maybe 19, 20 minutes. Very difficult to win games of football.
“What you need to do in that situation is stay in the game. And we've done that really well.
“One thing, again, I can't criticise the players that remained on the pitch, because they gave absolutely everything, which is a given. That's what you expect. You have to put your body on the line.
“And going down to 10 against Celtic is very different as well, because the quality they've got. They make the pitch really big, they probe, they move it very quickly, and they're very aggressive. They pin you all the way in.
“So we had to change shape again at half-time, make a couple of changes, because if you stay in a back four, they'll put you in a back five very quickly, even a back six at times. So we had to change that. I thought that worked really well.
“We nullified Celtic, although obviously they had a lot of dominance, but shots from distance, which is what you need to try and do, get bodies in between the ball. And players defended the box with their lives.
“The bit that frustrates me is the two goals we lose are avoidable. It's not as if, because we're down to 10, we get outdone on that situation, which is the difficulty.
“And then, for the last 10 minutes, you want to stay in the game long enough to give yourself and earn the right, the players earn the right, to have a real go in the last 10 minutes. Made the subs, got a couple of strikers on, a bit of freshness, a bit more direct.
“Clearly losing in the game, so you can throw everything at it at that point then, taking a lot more risks.
“And then we have one of the biggest chances of the game and we don't take it. And you might only get one of them, we only got one, and that was the difference today.
“If that goes in, the players would have got, for all the defensive duties they got, the point in the game.”
Four Hibs players in red-card blunders
Addressing the recent spate of players getting sent off, with McGrath joining Grant Hanley, Raphael Sallinger and Felix Passlack in the hall of shame, Gray said: “Yeah, I think it's clearly all different types of ones. I've obviously defended a couple of previous ones for different reasons because of the letter of the law, for example.
“Grant Hanley's is just a decision. The goalkeeper makes an error by just losing his bearings as a goalkeeper and the letter of the law gets sent off. The Felix one's maybe slightly different because that's atoning for a mistake where he pops it in the middle of the pitch.
“But I can't defend Jamie's one because that's just, you know, everybody knows, especially in the modern day, if you leave the ground at all and you lunge, you're putting yourself at risk. Now, that's completely out of character for Jamie McGrath. I'm not just directing that at him.
“But as a group now, as a result of that we're making subs, as a result of that you're going down to 10 men. And we can't just accept the fact that that's alright. It's not. I've spoke about it already.
“Nobody does it on purpose. Clearly. But it goes back to what I said at the very start.
“In that moment, it's a lack of discipline, a lack of professionalism because of you taking that chance. And the minute you leave the ground, you take that risk.
“It's definitely costing us. I think it's very difficult to win games, especially this level of opposition. So to do it with 10 men for as long as we did, to try and do it, makes it extremely difficult.
“The week before, to try and win with nine men, for another 40 minutes or whatever it was, 45 minutes, extremely difficult. I said it last week, we're beating ourselves.
“And today, clearly I can't sit here and say if we kept 11 on pitch, we would have won the game. Who knows what would have happened? But we're certainly making it much more difficult for ourselves.”
Fifth place brings potential Euro consolation
While only the top four in the Scottish Premiership are guaranteed a crack at European football next season, a Celtic win over Dunfermline in this month’s Scottish Cup final would open up a spot in the UEFA Conference League qualifiers for the team finishing fifth. Hibs, who lost 4-1 on their most recent visit to Falkirk, need to make amends this weekend.
“The door was slightly open because of the results yesterday with the Motherwell game (losing to Falkirk), for us to try and capitalise on that,” said Gray. “We didn’t do it So the games are running out.
“I'm not naive enough to think that that's alright, or that they're going to be okay. We're still very much aware of the challenge that faces us.
“We're now back in a situation where we're relying on Motherwell. For us to catch them, they need to drop points, and we'll probably need three wins.
“Now, more importantly than that, we've got Falkirk breathing down our necks, trying to catch us, the same as we're trying to catch Motherwell. And we need to make sure we go into that game and try and get three points there, because last time we went there, it wasn't a great performance from our point of view.
“We certainly want to atone for that. But it'll be a really difficult game because, like I've already said, everyone's got something to play for. We're back in a situation now where we need to make sure we've got no more slip-ups available.”