Hibs 'felt goal was coming' says David Marshall as he hails 'incredible' Marijan Čabraja and gives take on Rangers penalty
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Josh Campbell cracked home a fine half-volley in the second minute of injury time as Hibs left it until the last moment for the second game in a row at Easter Road after goals from James Tavernier and Tom Lawrence had given the visitors a 2-1 lead, with Martin Boyle on target for the hosts in between.
And the captain hailed his side’s character as they kept fighting until the bitter end.
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Hide Ad"It was a bit of a weird one, because they were down to nine men, but you felt it was coming. We were just waiting for the break of the ball,” Marshall said afterwards.
"It’s a good result for us. Yes, we should be getting something from nine men, but it says something about our character that we don’t give up, we don’t get frustrated, that we kept our composure and managed to get the goal and the result.
"That’s three in four games now where we’ve scored late. It would maybe be handy if we started games better, but I do think it says something about our personality that we can pull it out like that.”
Marshall has been in the game long enough to know a penalty when he sees one and he had no complaints over the spot-kick awarded for Rocky Bushiri’s foul on Antonio Čolak.
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Hide Ad"You can’t argue really, can you? Rocky’s got his hands on the striker so, yeah, there’s no argument. Put it this way, if it’s not given, I don’t think Rangers are up in arms, but it’s still hands on the player.
"I think we are in a different era now; you have to realise these things can happen and you have to defend smarter.
"Obviously, we’ve got VAR coming in, so these things will get picked up. It’s a contact sport, and anyone who has been watching football for years knows that maybe ten years ago that was never a penalty. But, like I say, it’s a changed game now.”
The veteran shot-stopper also had words of praise for Marijan Čabraja, who was a first-half replacement for Paul Hanlon despite attending his father’s funeral in Croatia on Thursday. The full-back broke down in tears at the final whistle with his team-mates quick to console him after a mammoth effort in getting back to Scotland and playing more than an hour of the match.
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Hide Ad“It’s incredible. He spoke to the lads in the dressing after the game and it was pretty emotional,” Marshall revealed.
"I can’t believe he played – I think he just got back on Friday – and it puts everything into perspective a wee bit.
“He has been superb since he came to the club but to go back and have to deal with that bereavement, and then come back and be thrown on like that and play the way he did… fair play to him.
"He was thanking the boys, but we should be thanking him, because we didn’t expect him to be anywhere near the country, but he did amazingly well.”
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