David Gray accepts Hibs defeat but says Motherwell star got away with one

The Easter Road side were miles off the pace at Fir Park and were two goals down inside 22 minutes after a penalty from Maswanhise and a strike from Elijah Just. They were also reduced to ten men when defender Grant Hanley was dismissed for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity and while Gray had no complaints over the spot-kick or Hanley’s red, he queried whether Maswanhise should have been given his marching orders after an altercation with Iredale.

“We probably deserved it for the first 25 minutes of the game,” said Gray of the defeat. “We were very unlike us, we started slowly, we were really poor in possession, made unforced errors and misplaced passes and everything that could have gone against us did. We went down to ten men and it was a really difficult task.

“No complaints about the red card because of the letter of the law. I’m not going to argue with the offside and the red card. Maswanhise gets away with one. I’ve seen it with my own eyes but I’ve not seen a camera angle. But the linesman saw it, I saw it, the goalie coach saw it.

“He didn’t quite make contact but if I make an action to do that you can’t do it and I saw it with my own eyes which is quite frustrating. But at the same moment we probably deserved things with our start of the game. They did show character and effort and they didn’t just roll over. We didn’t do enough to deserve to get back in the game.”

Gray also had mixed views on the penalty, which was awarded via VAR for a handball by Hanley. Yes and no,” he said on it. “No because it’s self-inflicted and it comes about from losing the ball in a poor area. Yes because the inconsistency with decisions in the box I don’t understand. That’s the frustration of every manager at the moment when people have the chance to look back and one’s a pen and the other isn’t.”

Askou delighted with Motherwell

His Motherwell counterpart Jens Berthel Askou was delighted with his team’s performance. They join Hibs on 21 points and are one of three teams joint third in the Premiership.

“The first 35 minutes we were in full control of what happened and how we executed the intentions we had extremely well, how much we hurt them in and out of possession and the sharpness we were able to deliver in the moments,” said Askou.

“I’d rather we kept a clean sheet than we totally lose control and it became attack and attack and score for fun then they get it 2-1 and it’s full panic from there and anything can happen. So I was happy we were able to control. A third goal would have killed the game completely but really pleased with the clean sheet.

“We also knew it takes time to cultivate that potential. We've been open and honest, we have big dreams and ambitions and we have delivered some performances earlier in the season that has led to our belief we will get more points if we stay on track and keep developing and adding more details to what we do.

“The last month or so we are starting to reap some of the benefits from that work and it's about not being complacent and thinking things are going well. We have to build and add more layers and be even more ambitious about our performances because I expect the opposition to make it more and more difficult to do what we’re doing at the moment.”