'Devastated' Hibs players exit Europa League with 'heads held high' - but aware of failings as new tests loom
‘We can’t let it linger’ - defender on need for quick turnaround ahead of Scottish Premiership kick-off
Hibs players were left ‘devastated’ by the agonising nature of their Europa League exit in dramatic extra time scenes at Easter Road. But David Gray’s men have been urged to build on the credit and kudos they earned in a battling 3-2 aggregate loss to mighty Midtjylland.
Third in the Scottish Premiership last season, Hibs head to Dens Park on Sunday to kick off the new domestic campaign against Steven Pressley’s Dundee. Partizan in Belgrade next week? There’s no doubt that Hibs feel the experience gained against Midtjylland will help when they travel to one of the most intimidating cities in European football.
But right now they’re licking wounds, icing knocks, lining up for recuperative massages on weary limbs. And, yes, allowing themselves just a little time to wonder what might have been.
“Devastated is probably the word for it,” said central defender Warren O’Hora, the Irishman – outstanding in last night’s 2-1 loss, both with and without the ball – adding: “We gave it our all over two legs.
“The goals that they scored over two legs are of very, very high quality. A free-kick, a 20-yard strike and an overhead kick, which is very, very hard to take, considering that they played in the Champions League recently.
“Did they cut us open much? Did they have chances? Not as much. It didn't really feel like it on the pitch. I felt like we had chances as well, but to lose a game with two goals like that is a very hard one to take.
Dens Park challenge up next
“Of course, we'll definitely look at things we could have done better. I'm not saying we'll just go away from the game, we'll definitely look at things where we can improve, because that's what we've been doing through the whole start.
“Since I've come to the club, that's the way it works. After every performance, we look at what we can do better, what we did well. So we'll definitely do that, and then it'll be very quickly turning around to Dundee, I'd imagine.
“But we can't let it linger. The changing room we have, us boys won't let anybody feel sorry for themselves or anything like that. Because it's in the past now, we can't control it.”
Within the first team dressing room at East Mains, where players gathered today for a recovery session, there is an understanding that Europe – an adventure still not an end, despite dropping into the Europa Conference League third qualifying round – is the reward for last season’s efforts in the league. And that, if they want to be regulars in UEFA competition, they’ll need to do it via the domestic platform.
O’Hora, looking ahead to the challenge at Dens, said: “Exactly, exactly that. We still have another opportunity next week, but at the end of this season, you want to be able to do something here in Europe again.
“That is obviously a goal that we'll set, no doubt about it. But we need to start taking it game by game, and we'll start this Sunday.
“The league starts on Sunday, so we regroup right now. We can come out of the two legs with our heads held high.
“We went toe-to-toe for 200-odd minutes with a team at a very, very high level. I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of.
“We have a lot of positives to take into Sunday. It's definitely going to be a tough game. It's the first game of the season; we want to start well.
“We have no time to let our heads hang. We'll come in, we'll recover, and we'll go through everything.”
Europa Conference League new target
Insisting that Hibs will definitely have learned from their efforts against Midtjylland, O’Hora named just a couple of plus points from the two legs against a team with an impressive European pedigree, the former MK Dons player saying: “Discipline, work-rate. I think we always knew that we'd probably have to give up some possession, that they’d get into areas.
“We can play against that level, we believed. I think the second leg performance showed that we can play against opposition at this level. Unluckily we were punished by high quality goals, like I said earlier.
“It's positive things in the game. Obviously we won't accept losing, I don't want to put that across, it's very disheartening. But there is a lot of positives in that game, I'm sure that the gaffer and the staff will pick out.
“Away to Midtjylland, it was my debut in European football. You can only benefit from it, definitely.
“It's an experience, it's definitely a different experience. You travel to different countries, a different atmosphere, different style of play, different players.
“It's something that you need to adapt to quickly, and I think we did over these last two legs. But like I said, we have Sunday coming up first, and that's where our focus will be.”
Hibs had chances to pull off a real shock last night. Counter-attacking opportunities where the wrong decision was made – or the ball simply wouldn’t bounce in the right direction. The sort of thing that always makes a difference, the higher up the footballing ladder you go.
Easter Road bedlam is ‘why we play football’ - Hibs ace
Yet there were also positives to take from the experience. Not least the sheer bedlam generated by Rocky Bushiri’s equaliser in extra time.
“Yes, that's why you play football, isn't it?’ said O’Hora, forcing a smile. “It's for moments like that. It's so nice.
“Rocky scored so many important goals for us last year, and he's just scored another one for us this year. That's a credit to him. He's a real goal threat in the box.
“But you can see the reaction from the fans, singing his name. You see everybody celebrating, the whole bench celebrates.
“There's boys that didn't play, didn't start, didn't come on, whatever. But it's all forgotten about, that's how together this group has been since we've first come in. We're going to need that tenfold for the whole season.
“The backing we got against Midtjylland was amazing. The fans stood by us, it was absolutely jumping.
“The atmosphere, as soon as you walked out, it was just electric. Even when they did score the first goal, the crowd didn't let us get our heads down, they stayed behind us from the very off - and we're going to need that week in, week out this season.”