Hibs stalwart 'can't remember when he last tackled someone' as he has say on state of refereeing

Lewis Stevenson has added his voice to his manager’s frustration with refereeing this season, the Hibs stalwart admitting games have felt ‘stop-start’ this season.

Scottish football’s Mr Nice Guy took a more pragmatic approach when airing his thoughts about officials and in particular the performance of Craig Napier during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with St Johnstone in which the 35-year-old’s strike earned Hibs a point, cancelling out Stevie May’s acrobatic opener for the hosts. But asked about the quite frankly baffling decision to send off Jimmy Jeggo shortly after the restart, Stevenson admitted he expected the free kick to go Hibs’ way.

"I honestly thought it was a free-kick to us. Jimmy touched the ball and the guy [Connor McLennan] has kicked his foot. Jimmy’s foot pointed down and you can’t tackle like that on the ground all the time or you’ll dislocate your knee, especially on a dry pitch like that, you need a wee bit of air time. If he had his studs up, then fair enough. But he’s definitely not that type of player, it was tough on him. It was at a big point in the game. After that, St Johnstone were a lot better and we probably rode our luck. There was good defending from Paul [Hanlon] and Will [Fish], and Marsh [David Marshall] had a couple of great saves. It might be a big point at the end of the season, so we’ll look at the positives. It wasn’t pleasant on the eye.

It wasn’t just the red card that drew ire from the Hibs bench – one bizarre moment saw the referee beckon the Easter Road physio onto the park to treat Kevin Nisbet before the Hibs striker waved him away. Napier then insisted Tommy Scanlon come on the park, to the bemusement of Nisbet, who then had to leave the field of play despite not needing or receiving treatment. One observer opined on social media that it appeared the game was being ‘refereed by a jumped-up supply teacher’, which gives a good idea of what the players were dealing with.

Joe Newell pleads with referee Craig Napier as he shows Jimmy Jeggo (lying injured on the ground) a red card

“Things are very stop-start. I don’t know why it takes so long. For the first 15 minutes, it felt like the game was in play for two minutes. It needs to go a bit quicker. I think referees could air on the side of caution sometimes,” Stevenson continued. “Look, it’s a tough job. Everyone appeals. There is a lot of noise, bouncing balls and split decisions. But it feels stop-start this season. We look at the running stats and some games like that, we hardly move because we’re standing about for most of the game. There were only five minutes of stoppage time. I would have bitten your hand off for five minutes, but I thought there could have been ten added on.”

In his near-twenty years in professional football, Stevenson has flown into his fair share of tackles. He has been cautioned in some cases for challenges probably a little more dangerous than for what Jeggo saw red. Not that the veteran is a dirty player, but where is the line drawn for what is and isn’t a legal challenge?

"When I first started, there were tackles flying in all the time. Sometimes you need to lift your leg a wee bit off the ground or you’ll give yourself a serious injury with the pitches or your studs could get caught in the ground. You almost have to dangle your leg, which you never would before. You were told to protect yourself and go in hard – now you can’t. I can’t remember the last time I made a tackle! You need to stay on your feet, but it’s a different technique. If you’ve been playing football for 20 years, it’s hard to change the way you tackle now.”

Johnson suggested similar, that Hibs might not risk an attempt to get justice for Jeggo for fear of losing him for even longer should an appeal be thrown out or even worse, deemed frivolous although it’s hard to see anyone with even an ounce of footballing knowledge agree with the dismissal.

"I’m sure most referees have played football at some sort of level. I know it’s a very hard job but I think they could air on the side of caution sometimes,” Stevenson offered. “Maybe play a safe decision, then if it does need to be looked at then they can. If they gave a yellow card [for Jeggo], I’m sure VAR wouldn’t have overturned it. Jimmy is the one who got punished, but luckily we didn’t. He never went in to hurt anyone at all. It’s a tough one for him. Obviously with the Graeme Shinnie situation, I’m sure Hibs will almost be scared to appeal it.”

Away from dodgy decisions, and referees who are seemingly more interested in being the centre of attention, Stevenson knows Hibs have to make the most of their top six chances, having secured a place in the top half of the cinch Premiership and giving themselves a chance of European football next season. The furore surrounding the red card shouldn’t mask a wan performance by Hibs, mind you. There were contributory factors of course – Johnson highlighted the pitch condition before the game, and as Stevenson said, the stop-start nature of the game wasn’t conducive to any form of flowing football. But he was right when he warned the Capital club have to do better than previous spells in the top six.

"We need to kick on. There has obviously been an improvement from last season, but we can’t rest on our laurels,” he continued. “There are five massive games now and we need to pick up as many points as possible. In the times we’ve been in the top six, I don’t think we’ve done that well. We need to finish as high as we can.”