Frustrated Hibernian manager David Gray was proud of his team’s efforts in defeat to Rangers, but warned them they have to be more clinical in the final third.
Hibs missed a penalty through striker Mykola Kukharevych and passed up several other chances on the day, the best of which fell to substitute Dwight Gayle late on, who planted a free header inches past Jack Butland’s post.
Gray thought that if his team got the equaliser, they would have gone on to win the game, with the Easter Road boss ultimately left feeling that a golden opportunity to take something from Ibrox had slipped through his team’s fingers.
“It’s mixed emotions for me, really,” Gray said.
“I’m quite frustrated. You never accept losing games, ever, but I can't fault the players' effort. The work rate, the game plan that they stuck to, I thought it worked really well.
“But there are big moments in big games. And you know you get the opportunity with penalty…but even missing the penalty, I thought we reacted really well with that as well.
“It’s almost like Rangers getting a goal when their goalkeeper makes the save – so the reaction from the players was excellent. We got them in at half-time and then that led to the way we played in the second half as well.
“I thought if we had got one goal, we could have gone on and won the game. That’s how I felt when I was watching it.
“I felt that we created loads of chances, 18 shots, something like that. So I think that was good.
“But we also need to make sure that we try and take one of the chances - because you don't get as many as that when you come here.
“Everything we talked about before the game, that’s what generally happened. I think we fully expected Rangers to come out the traps flying after their positive result during the week in Europe, the first came back at Ibrox in front of 50,000. I know what it's like to come here, it's loud, it's intense.
“So, we knew we had to weather that. I thought we did that really well, limited them to very few chances – and (Tom) Lawrence’s goal is a worldie.”
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