Efe Ambrose: Hibs would be par with Celtic but for home form

Efe Ambrose has claimed Hibs would be 'toe-to-toe' with Celtic at the top of the Premiership table but for their form at Easter Road.

The Capital side have won just four of their 11 matches at home this season in stark comparison to results on the road where they have lost only two of their 13 fixtures, the second of those coming against Celtic at the weekend, Neil Lennon’s players going down to a single goal from ex-Hibs striker Leigh Griffiths having twice held the Hoops to a 2-2 draw previously.

However, Ambrose and his team-mates won plenty of praise for their performance in the east end of Glasgow, Lennon declaring afterwards he’d never heard Celtic Park as quiet “for a long, long time” as it was during the second half of the match.

Now Hibs face their first home match of 2018 having come through a tough schedule of three away games in the space of just six days when they play Motherwell at home tomorrow night, the Lanarkshire outfit having come from two goals down to force a draw on their last visit to Easter Road.

Efe Ambrose

And, insisted Ambrose, is was now time to finally make home advantage count, while conceding Lennon’s side will have to match their performance against Celtic to do so.

The Nigerian internationalist said: “I think we deserved something out of the Celtic game. They are the best side in the country by a mile so we have to take the positives into the Motherwell match. But we know how good they are so we need to perform. As the gaffer says, to win you have to earn it and to do that you have be give your best, particularly at home.

“In the first half of the season we haven’t pressed home that advantage, if we’d won our home games we’d be toe-to-toe with Celtic.

“I don’t know what is wrong, but we are working hard to make the second half of the season much better than the first.”