David Gray spoke to the media after Hibs' 1-0 Premier Sports Cup defeat at Kelty Hearts. Here's everything he had to say...
How disappointing was that?
“It’s very disappointing. If you don’t take your chances, you give the opposition an opportunity to stay in the game.
“And then they take their chance. We switch off at the corner – and get punished for it.
“We had plenty of chances during the game. And it’s not good enough.
Is it especially frustrating considering how clinical you were in the first two games?
“It is disappointing because we had been clinical in the first two games. But more annoying is the fact that the chances we had were really good chances.
“We can’t have as many as that and not take them.
“I’m very disappointed that they switched off at the corner. The manner in which we lose the goal, a free header in the six-yard box, at any level that’s not good enough. It’s something we nneed to work on, definitely.#
“Kelty then put their bodies on the line, we showed a lack of quality in the box, no composure on our part has kept them in the game. WE huffed and puffed without creating enough.
Set-pieces have been spoken about as an issue under several managers - what is it?
“That was just a lack of concentration. Switching off. The ball went out, we don’t adjust quickly enough.
“That’s just about a desire and a mindset to defend your goal, to make sure you defend things properly. Credit to them, they had the appetite. Their guy was desperate to get his head on it – and he scored.
“We’ve been very good at that in pre-season and the first two games. But we need to learn from that quickly.”
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Does today underline the need to bring in another striker?
“I think the more quality you have in that area of the pitch, the better. The more competition for places, the better.
“No-one is shying away from the fact that we need players in the forward areas. That’s what we’re working hard to add.
“We need to be far more clinical and far more composed in front of goal.”
How important is it to bounce back quickly and show this was bump in the road?
“Yeah, it needs to be that. It’s not as if we came to Kelty not to win. But you have to understand that it takes to win at places like this.
“There is always a challenge you face when you go to Kelty. And there will be another tough challenge at the weekend when we face Peterhead – so we need to be ready for it.
“We need to dust ourselves down as quickly as we can, reflect on what we can do better – and make sure we do it. That starts straight away on Monday morning.
Half a dozen changes, experienced players coming, is the blame on them?
“We’re all in this together. I’m not blaming anyone individually. Collectively, we weren’t at the level we’ve been for the last two competitive games. Definitely not.
“And that needs to be the challenge, that if we do make changes, the players who come in and the team playing still needs to step up to the level. We dropped a level against Kelty.
“Whether that’s a lack of quality, a lack of composure in the final third, we did have enough chances to go and win the game. We didn’t do that, didn’t get the early goal to go and impose ourselves.
“The longer you stay at nil-nil while missing chance after chance, the more opportunity you give to the opposition to punish you.
Did Josef Bursik miss out with an injury?
“He’s had a wee reaction to diving on his hip, a little bit. But he’s had two 90 minutes back to back.
“Even today, with the changes I’ve made, we’re thinking about the third game in a week, using the squad. It’s an opportunity for others to get minutes and make sure the level doesn’t drop; unfortunately we didn’t do that today.”
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