Hibs have a 'soft underbelly' says Lee Johnson as he bemoans team's mistake culture

Hibs have to find a way of banishing their ‘soft underbelly’ if they are to gain consistency of results, according to manager Lee Johnson.

The Easter Road boss admitted he had been alarmed by aspects of his team’s performance in the 4-1 defeat by Aberdeen on Friday night. The visitors dominated much of the first half until the controversial penalty award for the hosts after David Marshall was adjudged to have fouled Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes in the area. Johnson hit out at the length of time taken to check the spot kick and a potential offside against the Dons forward but also pointed the finger at his players over the 90 minutes, questioning their mentality.

"It hurts, and it should hurt the lads as as group and the individuals who make the mistakes and only then can you learn from it,” he said. “We're a good side with a lot of potential but we've got that soft underbelly – a little bit psychological but not necessarily physical; we had physical players on the pitch.”

Johnson also bemoaned the catalogue of errors that allowed the Dons to score a second and a third inside ten minutes.

"We seem to be okay with making mistakes. We make one, then another, and another,” he continued. “Good teams come to places like this and yes, there are mistakes in games, but very quickly everyone else is shuffled and organised and it's snuffed out.

"Sometimes that's kicking the ball out of play and defending from a set position again. We had enough defenders and physicality on the pitch to cope with it but not enough strength of mind,” Johnson added.