'Celtic loss won't slow us down' - Hibs boss promises return to winning ways

Monty saw his men lose 4-1 to Celtic in Glasgow.

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery insists there will be no loss of momentum after his team’s winning run hit the breakers in a heavy loss to Celtic in Glasgow.  And he hopes the return of two key players will help the Hibees get back on track in Livingston on Saturday.

Monty saw Hibs commit some basic defensive errors as they lost 4-1 at Celtic Park last night. But he was sufficiently encouraged by the performance to believe that the Hibees remain on an upward trajectory.

Having won three on the bounce before the midweek reversal, Hibs face three potentially pivotal away games – Livingston, St Johnstone and Ross County – before welcoming Hearts to Easter Road on December 27. Montgomery, who hopes to have Dylan Vente and Jordan Obita back in the starting XI this weekend, saw enough in the Celtic loss to believe that they’ll bounce straight back from the loss.

“We won’t lose momentum,” he declared. “The boys are confident, they’re really together. Even giving the goals away against Celtic, we continued to play, continued to create problems for them.

“It doesn’t affect confidence. The momentum is still with us, we know we can go on good runs. All we focus on now is the next game this weekend.”

Vente was kept on the bench and Obita didn’t even make the match day squad at Celtic Park, Montgomery revealing: “Dylan took a knock and we didn’t want to risk him tonight. Jordan will be back for the weekend. We didn’t want to risk him because quite frankly we can’t afford to risk players when we have four games coming up in a real short space of time. We will regroup now and get ready and prepare for the next game on Saturday.

“I’m proud of the effort and the way we played against Celtic, because you have to be brave - and we were brave.”