Hibs need to find solutions to big issues fast as Elie Youan absence explained

For the seventh time in their past ten games across all competitions, Hibs shipped a goal just before the break after Ross MacIver halved their 2-0 lead given to them via a Martin Boyle penalty and a Jamie McGrath strike. The hosts’ strike gave them fresh impetus in the second half and Liam Henderson netted a header from a corner to ensure a share of the spoils at the Falkirk Stadium.

Hibs remain undefeated after five Premiership matches - but four of the games have been draws. They slipped to fourth on the back of this result and now have two daunting assignments away at Celtic and Hearts before the international break.

Asked about what is going wrong at Hibs right now, Gray said: “We're creating enough chances, we're not being clinical enough to finish games off. And then the obvious one that I can't shy away from, and I've already mentioned it - and I'll be repeating myself a lot in this press conference probably - is the timing of the goals we're losing before half-time.

“The second one is a set-piece from something we've actually defended well, but we lose a big goal at the weekend because of that desire to make sure your man doesn't score. And unfortunately tonight it happened again. And I think that's what's going wrong at the moment.

“Again we lose a goal by not stopping the cross, and then not defending the box well enough. I was quick to remind the players at half-time that we're still winning, you're 2-1 up. Now clearly the momentum shift, the feeling in the stadium, the narrative in the stadium, they'll get a lift from that. But then I remind the players of what gave us success in the game in the first half.

Hibs lose ‘a really poor goal’

“Why did we get so much joy in the first half was how quickly we moved the ball, how much we switched to play and the chances we were creating. And then I thought in the second half we stopped doing that, first five minutes we had a couple of opportunities to switch to play, and tried to play through the middle, turned the ball over, which gives the opposition momentum again, and then it felt like the momentum had shifted.

“We lose a really poor goal, and then if I'm being honest, the noise in the stadium and the feeling, if anyone was going to go and win was probably Falkirk. So that's the real disappointment for me at that point, which was it almost became, we take a point from an opportunity where we should have had three points in my opinion.

“At the end of the day I put the players on the pitch, I put the team, so it's my responsibility to make sure I put the blend together and improve the players and educate the players as to why we think it's happening and how you can be better in the moments. If it was the same player every single week you'd understand it, it's not, and today I think there is too many crosses coming in our box at times.

“There is an ownership within there, there is accountability within it, and within that then you need to stick together, and obviously the most important thing is you need to keep working hard to make sure it doesn't happen again. We need to find solutions and quickly. But if I try and be positive about that, it's undefeated in the league still, away from home at a difficult place to come, and we need to take it and move on quickly.”

Falkirk manager John McGlynn expressed pride at the way his players battled back from two goals down and admitted they had targeted a softness in Hibs of conceding goals just before half time.

MacIver’s strike in the second minute of stoppage time gave them belief that there was a route back into the match and they got their reward when Henderson headed home from a Calvin Miller cross.

McGlynn so proud of his Falkirk players

“I’m very, very proud of the players,” said McGlynn, “the performance that they've put on there. The goal that we got back before half-time certainly makes the team talk at half-time a much easier one and gives the players a lot of confidence and belief going into the second half, which I felt we were a better team in the second half. We went towards the Hibs goal continuously as much as we possibly could and getting the goal back from Liam Henderson, I thought it was no more than we deserved. I thought the team mentality was great, I thought the team spirit was great. They put everything into it.

“The goal is huge, the goal at half-time is absolutely the reason why we ended up getting an equaliser, putting Hibs on the back foot a little bit. We were aware that Hibs have been losing an awful lot of goals, just running right on half-time and just before half-time. So that was something that we spoke about and thankfully our guys kept on going right until the whistle went at half-time.”

Hibs were once again without forward Elie Youan and Gray explained that the French forward - who saw a late transfer to Legia Warsaw at the start of the month collapse at the last minute - is currently injured.

“The Dundee United game he was involved in,” explained Gray, “and then he's felt his ankle, so he's had a little bit of a setback with his ankle, which he's been for a scan and seen a specialist just now. So hopefully it's not too long, but he has got a bit of an issue with his ankle at the minute, so he's just not available.”