Joe Newell eager to bounce back from Rangers loss as Hibs midfielder makes goals admission

Joe Newell admits he should be chipping in with more goals, after the Hibs midfielder opened the scoring in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final against Dundee United last month.

Joe Newell celebrates his opener at Tannadice in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals

Since joining Hibs the 28-year-old has contributed a goal a season but laughed as he addressed the possibility of improving his stats, starting on Saturday when the Tannadice club visit Easter Road on Scottish Premiership duty.

“It was a great first goal, wasn’t it?” he said when asked about his cup strike.

“That’s me done for the year! It’s a part of my game I know I can improve on, maybe I need to get myself further up the pitch and get myself in those positions more. Hopefully I can do a bit more and help the lads out.”

Newell's goal against Dundee United was just his third in Hibs colours

Although 3-0 down at half-time in the cup game the Terrors rallied in the second half and gave Hibs a scare, with Newell wary of what Tam Courts’ side can offer.

"They’re a good side and played some good stuff against us. We know the challenges we’ll face,” the Englishman said.

“It’s never ideal going into the break after a loss. We’ve been stewing over it for two weeks so we know how big this game is. At home, we want a win to put that marker back down and get us back to the form we’re in because we’ve had a great start.

“When you lose you want your next game as soon as possible to try to get over it. It’s been a bit annoying but we’ve been working hard on the training ground on a few things.”

The defeat at Ibrox was Hibs’ first of the domestic season and despite losing Ryan Porteous to a red card after just half an hour the Easter Road side kept the hosts at bay until the hour mark.

“We feel we’re heading in the right direction. We started really well against Rangers and got the goal,” Newell added.

“Things were looking good and the red card changed the game. Had it not been for that I think we would have won it.

“There are loads of positives to take. Even when we went down to ten we worked incredibly hard. We were disappointed but looking to bounce back straight away.”

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