Fans’ criticism is justified and performance not good enough, concedes Hibs boss Jack Ross

Jack Ross accepts “criticism is justified” after Hibs fans turned on him at the end of an abysmal night in Livingston.

The under-pressure head coach said he took full responsibility for a performance that he conceded was “not good enough” after Paul McGinn and Paul Hanlon were both sent off and Martin Boyle blazed a first-half penalty over the bar as the home side ran out deserved 1-0 winners in the cinch Premiership.

Ross admitted he could hear the supporters chanting for him to be “sacked in the morning” as Livingston closed out victory thanks to Jack McMillan’s 16th minute strike.

The Hibs boss said: “It’s part of the job. I have done this for nearly 300 games now. By and large I have pretty positive times as a manager. You know you will get criticised and that criticism grows when you are not producing positive results. We’re not doing that right now.

Hibernian manager Jack Ross cuts a frustrated figure on a very disappointing night in Livingston

“There’s times where I would be more defensive if I felt the performance was good because everyone judges it on the end result. But tonight all the criticism I receive will be justified because I am in charge of that team.

“And as I said that level of performance was not good enough so the criticism should fall upon me.”

Hibs have now lost seven of their last nine games the Premiership and have picked up only two victories in the league since August – both against St Johnstone.

Ross has defended recent performances, promising that results would come, but could not defend this display at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

“We were not good enough in all aspects of our play,” he admitted. “We started the game well up to the concession of the goal. I know we have the immediate chance to equalise but our reaction to losing the goal for the rest of the game isn’t good enough in all aspects – energy, intensity, quality, discipline.

“That all falls on my shoulders. I own it, it’s my team and the team that was on the park for 60-70 minutes is nowhere near good enough to win games in the Premiership.”

With McGinn and Hanlon now suspended for Saturday’s trip to St Mirren, Ross could have more defensive headaches after Ryan Porteous limped off with an injury. But he refused to blame the busy schedule of matches.

He added: “We are going into the next games with a stretched squad now. Naturally we are going to have to look at the squad. That’s not an excuse. This was nothing to do with mental or physical fatigue – we had a strong enough group physically and mentally – we did it last year to cope with this schedule of games.

Asked about the lack of discipline, he said his team lost their way as they began chasing the game, leading to second yellow cards for McGinn and Hanlon.

“I meant in terms of our defensive shape after the concession of the goal,” said Ross of his team’s indiscipline. “The consequence of that is you put yourself in positions where you might earn cautions and it makes the weekend even more challenging being without a minimum two experienced defenders.”

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