Nick Montgomery says Hibs just wanted to get the job done at Ross County despite being spared the perils of a messy Dingwall pitch.

A large travelling contingent from Leith were left disappointed on Saturday morning as County’s pitch was deemed waterlogged following a pitch inspection, the second time in three seasons they have had a trip to the Highlands fall to adverse conditions at short notice. Montgomery had taken his players north on Friday night, but by the time they surfaced at the team hotel, he knew the fixture was in trouble.

With a weather warning issued for the area overnight, water had accumulated across the pitch, and the decision was taken around 10.30am to call the match off. Hibs had been striving to bounce back from a limp defeat to St Johnstone last weekend, with a view to re-establishing momentum ahead of the Edinburgh derby on December 27.

And Montgomery admits his players were left frustrated by the bad news, so keen were they to right the wrongs of McDiarmid Park. And although he conceded that the pitch could have exerted significant influence over the game, the Hibs manager insists his side would have preferred to dig in and graft for a result.

“We had our breakfast this morning and knew the rain had been pretty heavy through the night,” says Montgomery. “Then we got a notification that the referee was going to go and inspect the pitch at ten o’clock. 

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“To be honest, it already sounded like there was a bit of water in one of the goal mouths, which was an issue. Around nine thirty, we heard about the pitch inspection. 

“Obviously it’s disappointing because you do the preparation, the travel and the overnight stay. But that’s out of our control. These things happen. As much as we’re disappointed about it, these things happen.  We go back now and train tomorrow, adapt the session a little bit. But the boys are really disappointed because they were ready for the game. 

“Playing the game today on a heavy pitch, you never know what the outcome would have been. So yeah, we should be fresh. But the boys want to play games, they wanted to get it done today.  We do have a small squad, still have quite a thin squad. So we prepare as well as we can. "