Hibernian midfielder Jake Doyle-Hayes has incredibly tried to claim that the Easter Road club dominated large spells of their 2-0 loss to Celtic yesterday.
The Hoops bossed the game from start to finish as they ended the encounter with 21 shots to Hibs’ 5 [BBC]. Outside of a Kevin Nisbet opportunity in the opening minutes, Hibernian didn’t have a sniff at goal as Shaun Maloney suffered his first defeat as their new boss.
Celtic, meanwhile, cut Hibs open consistently in the first 45. Goals from Daizen Maeda and Josip Juranovic were enough to bag the points, but the truth is it could’ve been a lot more.
Even so, it appears that Doyle-Hayes has a different recollection of the game. As he provided Hibs TV with an analysis, the Irish midfielder provided a pretty incredible overview of what happened last night:
“It’s tough to speak after that. I felt like we did play well in stages of the game. We dominated them and we did have chances. We had a chance where we hit the post and they score a few minutes later. I think we implemented a lot of the stuff he [Maloney] wants us to do.
“We had a few chances but we know we need to create more chances in the final third. That’s something we need to work on.
“I think that’s what he wants us to do – control games. We tried to do that today and I think we did that in large spells. So we’re still learning from the new manager and we’ll keep putting it into practice on the training ground and hopefully improve.”
Celtic had Hibernain exactly where they wanted them all night
It’s difficult to know where this idea that Hibs matched us for spells comes from. Celtic had the game won by the half-hour mark if we want to be serious. Should we have had more goals? Of course considering the second only came on 25 minutes. That’s something Ange Postecoglou will still want to improve upon.
But you also have to be realistic about the performance. Yes Hibs had plenty of the ball, but only in the second half when Celtic started making some substitutions and disrupted their XI.
You could clearly see the Bhoys take their foot off the gas after the break. Hibs came out with greater purpose, but it’s difficult to see where these apparent chances they had came from. Joe Hart could’ve been forgiven for having the cigars out midway through the second half.
Sure you can understand a little bit of biased opinion. But let’s not get too deluded as to what happened last night. There was not one phase of that game in which Hibs controlled. Having some possession is a lot different to controlling a football match.
There’s a reason Celtic fans left delighted with their team’s performance and it’s not because Hibs dominated the game. The Edinburgh side were simply outclassed over the course of the 90 minutes.
Hopefully, we take the morale from last night into Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie at Alloa Athletic. But you can bet Ange Postecoglou will have a far different take than Doyle-Hayes when he analyses the game.
In other news, Pat Bonner lauds “huge ability” of fringe Celtic player under Ange
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