'Happening too often' - Marvin Ekpiteta identifies key Hibs weakness after Dundee United draw

Hibs defender Marvin Ekpiteta has said conceding late goals is ‘happening too often’ following their weekend draw with Dundee United. David Gray’s side drew 1-1 on Sunday afternoon at Easter Road.

They led 1-0 at half-time after Lewis Miller’s first-half header. However, they weren’t able to hold on in the end again.

Hibs striker Mykola Kukharevych was sent off for a second yellow after pulling Emmanuel Adegboyega’s shirt in the penalty area on 90 minutes. The spot-kick was then put away by attacker Sam Dalby to earn the visitors a point.

Leaking last-gasp goals is becoming a recurring theme for the hosts. Asked whether luck is deserting them right now, Ekpiteta said afterwards: “Yeah, it's happening too often now. It's becoming a reoccurring thing. I don't know what to say anymore, to be honest. How much of a responsibility do you feel the back line has in this? Because at times you're in a winning position consistently and it's snatched from you. 

"100%. It's definitely us as a back five. That's our job at the end of the day. But it's definitely the whole team, defending from the front on set pieces. We will take the most responsibility, but then again, it's the whole team. Everyone needs to stay alive and switch on.

"To be honest, a lot of us are quite relaxed. We know that because we're playing so well that today you can't play that well and not win the game. We feel like it's going to turn, but it's just a matter of when it's going to turn. You just can't keep not winning games, especially at a club like this. We have to win more games. What are the players saying in the dressing room about the penalty award? 

In terms of whether of whether conceding late is on his mind in matches, he said: “Not me personally, to be honest, because I know if I did well on that, it will affect my game towards the end of the game. So, I'm just trying to think of it as a new game. It's a fresh game. We can do it. We can see the game out. But unfortunately, it's not happening. It's not happening at all so far.”

Ekpiteta has praised Gray’s influence though: “He's been really positive, because like you see, most of the games we played were in the game. We were dominating most games. We should win.

“I think it's really hard for him to change, because we look at each other like, what can we do? What can he do? But really, he sets us up right. The formation, set-pieces, our tactics, how we go into each game.”

He added: “We've been doing well. I know we're supposed to try and take some sort of positive from these last three games that we've actually got a point and we haven't lost, to try and build on that. Even though we should have won them, it's still a little positive to try and take from it and just build on our defensive displays, because we've actually been quite solid and doing quite well.”

Hibs are back in action on Saturday with a home fixture against St Mirren before the international. They remain bottom of the table after one win from 11 matches.