David Gray praised his Hibs heroes for their late, late show and reckoned their comeback point against Aberdeen saw them answer a lot of questions.
The Leith side, who are still bottom of the table, came back twice in stoppage time to claim a draw against the Dons, with Rocky Bushiri sealing the 3-3 result. Gray praised his team for coming back from gifting some cheap goals and reckons on reflection his team should have taken all three points. Gray said: “There have been a lot of questions asked about the character of the group and twice we came back tonight.
“Confidence levels are low but this will go a long way to boosting that. It was a game I firmly believed we deserved to win. We have been on the receiving end of it too many times, but the way it finished is something to build on.
“If we can tidy up the areas we need to and get more performances like this we’ll turn it around. “The attitude, despite and togetherness was clear there for everyone to see – and I think the performance level was there too. It’s only a point from a game I felt we should have had three. Now we can look forward to Motherwell and trying to get three points.”
Bushiri has found himself out of the team but has come back in for Hibs and he delivered last night. The Hibs boss stated: “I’m delighted for Rocky, he’s not played the minutes he would like. But credit to him as a professional for everything he puts in on the training ground.”
Goalkeeper Jordan Smith also came in and didn’t cover himself in glory. Gray said: “On reflection, it will be because everyone will remember the one he came for and didn’t get on the end of. But he also had some big saves in the game too.
“What I want to reiterate is in previous weeks we have had errors and not got anything from the game. The attitude, desire and togetherness was there for everyone to see. The character has definitely been questioned in recent weeks but the thing I want the players to take from this is they went to the very wire.”
Jimmy Thelin admitted Aberdeen got caught up in the emotions at Hibs and that is something his players need to learn from The Dons were ahead going into stoppage time but Hibs levelled through Nicky Cadden.
Ester Sokler then put Aberdeen ahead in the 95th minute but Bushiri cancelled it out. Thelin said: “There was so much emotion and we lost concentration and made a collective mistake. We know what they’re going to do, but we were too spread out, so they picked up the second ball. That’s football, it happens all over the world sometimes, these strange games, but of course we have to learn from this and mature as a team and try to come back.
“You have so much emotion when you score a goal to make it 3-2, and it’s an amazing goal, and you celebrate, and then it’s just a kick-off, and then the game is over, and then this happens. And that’s a really tough learning point from us today, like the game is not over until it’s over. And Hibernian take this opportunity and we get one point.
“The first reaction is disappointment in the dressing room. Football games are tough and there is always a last chance out there. We know we have to be compact, close to each other but we weren’t.”