Hibs boss Jack Ross 'frustrated' to let leads slip against Dundee United

Jack Ross leads his Hibs team off after a 2-2 draw at Tannadice. Pic: SNS

Hibs boss Jack Ross is frustrated to be facing a Scottish Cup replay against Dundee United having twice been in the lead at Tannadice.

Christian Doidge and Martin Boyle had the Easter Road outfit ahead early in each half, only for them to be pegged back by strikes from United’s Lawrence Shankland and Louis Appere, leaving the sides to face each other again in Edinburgh a week tomorrow.

Ross said: ‘When you’re ahead twice in the game it’s frustrating. But our performance was good. I’ve spoken about how difficult a tie this would be, but I’m frustrated that we did not win the game.

‘“Did we have the chances to put the game to bed? We were good in a forward sense today, we were creating and bright and we created good opportunities. Ordinarily you may be critical defensively, but I felt we limited United to very few opportunities.

“They are a good attacking team and they took both opportunities. But even the second one was not a clear cut chance, it was just a really good finish. So it’s difficult to be critical of my team other than we didn’t win the match.

“We spoke about coming here and trusting in what we did and take belief from being a top-six club. We believed in our qualities and we are going to have to do that again in the replay although the dynamics of the game will be different at Easter Road because there will be expectancy on us to be on the front foot.

“But I felt we were dominant today and we can take confidence from our performance, especially coming off the back of the break.”

United boss Robbie Neilson admitted a draw was probably a fair result, but he was delighted with his players, saying: “Although we are doing well in the Championship there was always that doubt as to whether we could compete with a top six side in Scotland.

“I think we showed we can. We lost two goals early in each half, they had periods they dominated and we had periods we dominated so, for me, it was a pretty even game.”

Neilson hopes his side can replicate their performance at Easter Road. “In the Championship you can drop and still get a result but we will have to be at it again or we will be turned over.”