Hibs boss David Gray addresses Celtic 'gift' and provides Nicky Cadden injury update

Sallinger attempted a risky pass to Miguel Chaiwa, who slipped, allowing Reo Hatate to steal posession before feeding Daizen Maeda for a tap-in on 27 minutes. Celtic doubled their lead 33 seconds later through Arne Engels and although Hibs pulled one back in the second half from the penalty spot - Martin Boyle converting after Liam Scales handballed - the home side were unable to find an equaliser.

Gray was pleased with the reaction his side showed from the 2-0 defeat to Motherwell in midweek but the manner of losing two goals in such quick succession left him frustrated.

"I don't think it was a terrible decision," he said of the mix up between Sallinger and Chaiwa. "He loses his foot in the slip and we gift a gift to Celtic a goal, because that's what it was, it was a gift.

“But it's not through them doing something that they're not being asked to do. I take responsibility for that as well because of how we play.

"The frustration probably comes from you then give Celtic a two goal start, which was in a quick succession after a real positive start in my opinion. I thought we started the game really well for what I asked the players to do pre-match by being aggressive, being on the front foot, I've certainly seen that."

"When I strip it back, I obviously hate losing games of football, I'll never accept that, but I've certainly seen the reaction from Tuesday night at the start of the game, and then I've seen the reaction in the second half.

"Once we got the goal, there was only one team going to go and score the next one I felt. We definitely deserved to get something out of the game, apart from a two-minute period within the game. In the first-half, it was probably our chance in the game. I think we stripped Celtic to very little, we had big chances in the game and didn't take them, so the frustration is certainly there because I think we deserved to get something out of the game"

Hibs lost Nicky Cadden to injury late in the first-half and Gray is hopeful that the player came off at the right time.

"Yeah, I think it's his calf a little bit, he felt something," he said. "The fact that he didn't play on it, hopefully is a positive. He just said he felt a bit of a twinge at that time and he didn't want to push it any further, which is hopefully a sensible thing to do, but it's far too early to say. We don't know exactly what the outcome of that one is yet."