Montgomery rues missed chances as Hibs fail in top-six bid

Nick Montgomery spoke to the media after Hibs' 1-1 draw with Motherwell. Here's all he had to say... 

How was the dressing room after that?

“As you can imagine, the boys are devastated and dejected. It’s 20 seconds to go, the fans are elated, we’re elated. Twenty seconds later, it’s devastation.

"I think it’s a game we should have won comfortably. We had enough chances to completely kill the game off. But if you don’t take them, if you make the wrong decisions in key moments, you can rue those missed chances.

"That was certainly the case today. We didn’t concede a shot on goal for 94 minutes. That has happened a little too often. You can say it’s unlucky. You can say it’s an injustice. But what we have to do is take responsibility, clear the header, clear the second ball.

“It’s a wonder strike by the boy. But it’s their only shot in the game. It’s cost us two points and it’s cost us a spot in the top six.

“I’m disappointed and devastated for the players, for the fans. Because we grabbed the opportunity for 93-and-a-half minutes. Then we let ourselves down with one shot on target.

“It’s a poor goal to concede. That’s it."

Do you understand the reaction from the fans at full-time?

“I understand the fans, for sure. It’s been a frustrating season. The start of the season was really difficult, I came in, we’ve had some good periods, and some tough periods.

“We’ve had a lot of challenges this season – and the fans don’t deserve some of the stuff that’s happened to them this season. I thought they were great today, they got behind us. And with 20 seconds to go, if we hold out, there would have been fantastic scenes at the end.

“So of course, a game you should win, you drop points and it costs us a point in the top six, I can totally understand their frustration.

Why do Hibs keep losing late goals?

“You can work on it as much as you want. And we were very good for long periods at defending set-pieces this season.

“Obviously we had key players missing for a period, we brought new players in during January. But it’s hard to explain. The conditions - yeah, the ball is swirling. You’ve just got to get a head on it – and clear the second ball. We didn’t. That’s why we are kicking ourselves.

“The boys are devastated. We have to move on from it, because we can’t change it.”

Bottom six isn't good enough for Hibs, is it?

"No, it's not good enough for Hibs. You have to earn the right to get anywhere in football. You have to earn the right to get into the top six.

"As a club we have failed to hit one of our targets and that was the top six. The other two were progress in the cups, which we did to a good level. But the big target was to try and get into the top six. I've tried everything I can to get there.

"We've had stuff that's probably been challenging for us, but as a club we have to look back at the start of the season, before pre-season, and how we've ended up in this position where we're going into the last game 20 seconds away from the top six. It's 20 seconds away from not being good enough as well and unfortunately the results - last week as well - have gone against us and it's really hard to explain how that's happened.

What do you want to see now from players for rest of season?

"I have to pick the players up now. If you were sat in that dressing-room now and saw the devastation on the boys' faces, the hard work we've put in this season and the hard work we've put in on a daily basis, to be 20 seconds away from the top six and now we are the bottom six ... so now we have to pick ourselves up and in the next five games, we have to go out and win every one of those.

"I thought the performance was deserving of three points. They gave their heart and soul. I thought they showed a big reaction from last week's disappointing defeat because that's not an easy place to come, a lot of people knew it would be a challenging game today, but I thought we took it head-on.

"We deservedly got the lead and we should have killed the game off, it should have been dead and buried before that throw-in on the 94th minute. We have to show pride in the club and the shirt now. Everybody is in different situations now, players are out of contract, in contract, on loan, but ultimately we have to look at the next five games and try to win them."