Top line summary

  • Frustrated to be denied a penalty, but won't be 'drawn into' VAR controversy.
  • Felt the team could have taken more than a point.
  • 'Full circle moment' facing Neil Warnock
  • David Marshall injury still to be assessed

The Hibs manager spoke to the media after his side were held to a 2-2 draw away at Aberdeen. Here's everything he had to say...

A point today - could or should it have been more?

“I think it could have been more. We scored early in the game but we’re really disappointed to concede so soon after. Bojan Miovski’s movement is incredible, he’s always working off the back of people, but we’d worked on it all week – and we’re disappointed to concede that equaliser. After that it was a tight game between two pretty even teams on a difficult pitch, players slipping around, making mistakes. I thought we should have had a penalty in the first half for handball. We’ve had a lot of those given against us, but unfortunately that one didn’t go for us. In the second half, we’ve conceded another poor goal on our part. It’s a disappointing goal, a bit scrappy, and we have to defend from wide a bit better.

READ MORE: Hibs instant analysis: Emiliano impact, poor goals, Marshall injury

“The boys showed great character. The boys who came in during January are all getting fitter, we had Rocky Bushiri back today, the last player back from international duty. Now we have a full week to prepare for Dundee at home next weekend. Emiliano Marcondes is a top-quality player, his finish was top quality, and we then had a couple of chances when we could have won the game – and they could have won the game as well. But the impact of the subs was great and the squad is looking good, moving forward."

The bench is looking good - you've got multi-million pounds players to bring on?

“I don’t know about multi-million-pound players. But we’ve got a lot of players on loan who are top players. We've had five academy players in the squad and we went through a period where we had to rely on them, which is good for their development. But you want your best players fit and available. 

“You saw today, the squad, the players who came off the bench, we’re probably in a better place than we have been for probably two months leading up to last week.

Have you seen enough from your team to suggest you can go on a positive run?

"The only thing we can focus on is the next game. We move on. We could have taken the three points but it wasn't to be, but we'll take a point from a difficult place. It was really competitive, two teams fighting to get towards the top six. We'll give everything we can between now and the end of the season to give ourselves a chance to finish strongly.

How keen were you to beat Neil Warnock?

"Very keen. There's a lot of passion on the sidelines - a couple of times the fourth official had to get involved and calm everyone down. It just seemed to be one of those games. There were some good tackles - probably some old-school tackles - and two good teams that are trying to win the game. It's an experience, a bit of a full-circle moment, he used to be shouting at me. Now we are shouting at each other and the fourth official. There were quite a few contentious decisions today and it took a little bit of time. All in all, I thought it was a good game of football."

How is David Marshall?

"The pitch was really slippy. He's gone up to catch the ball and he's gone down and slipped and felt a little tweak in his hamstring. Fingers crossed it's not too bad. We did the right thing by bringing on Jojo Wollacott on. I thought Jojo came on and he was composed. He stepped up when we needed him. Hopefully Marsh's injury isn't a bad one and we'll see in the next couple of games."

What were you told about the VAR non-handball?

"I don't want to get drawn into VAR but we have a screen where we can slow it down and have a look. There were two calls for handball in the same incident and you think you might get one of them, but his arm's away from his body and it's hit [Devlin's] arm, but I'm told it's not a penalty and it's been cleared. We just have to move on."