Jack Ross hails Kevin Nisbet and Jamie Murphy as duo end Hibs' losing streak

Jack Ross hailed the performance of Kevin Nisbet and Jamie Murphy in Hibs’ 2-1 victory over St Johnstone and admitted he would have been happy with any sort of win to end his team's losing streak.

Jack Ross celebrates Hibs' victory at McDiarmid Park

The duo struck twice in the final seven minutes at McDiarmid Park to turn the game around after Liam Gordon’s first-half opener for the hosts.

"Getting the result is the be-all and end-all for us but it was a really good performance as well,” Ross said afterwards.

"When you lose that number of games consecutively, sometimes you can feel within the group of players that they’re losing faith in what you do but it’s not felt like that.

"They have been very upbeat and bright and I think they showed that even in the first half in terms of the performance and in the second half they had to show a lot of trust.

"With the exception of a five-minute spell around 70 minutes when we got a bit frantic, I thought we were excellent. We created so many opportunities in the second half – not taking them was the frustration – but we got there in the end.”

Ross was full of praise for Nisbet, who scored his first goal since October 3 and bounced back from having two earlier strikes chalked off.

"I thought he was excellent in his overall play; unfortunate to maybe have the first goal disallowed because it looked a very close decision and although I’ve not seen the second one yet, he kept coming back, kept putting himself in good positions.

"His overall link-up play was excellent, and he’ll be delighted because he’s a striker who’s used to scoring goals and it has been a frustrating period for him.”

Jamie Murphy, who netted the winner, only returned to training a few days ago after shaking off an injury, and Ross was pleased with the winger’s impact.

"The way we were so dominant in the second half meant it was tailor-made for Jamie and Scott Allan because they have that real quality in the final third and we had so much of the ball there.

"You saw how much the goal meant to him. He is determined to do well here, he loves his football, and he had a big impact on the game.”