Josh Campbell eyeing derby win to boost mood in Hibs camp after disappointing Celtic defeat

Josh Campbell insists a win against Hearts on Monday would be the ideal start to 2023 for Hibs and would boost the mood at Easter Road after a chastening defeat by Celtic on Wednesday night.

Celtic scored twice in each half, with Aaron Mooy contributing a double alongside strikes from Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi to hand Ange Postecoglou’s side a comprehensive win in the Capital, bringing Hibs down from the high of their own 4-0 victory over Livingston on Christmas Eve.

They make the short journey to Gorgie on Monday to first-foot rivals Hearts, who enjoyed a rare win against St Johnstone in Perth in midweek, but Campbell insists the Hibees have to embrace another big game to get over the disappointment of conceding four without reply against Celtic.

“For the first ten or fifteen minutes I thought we were the better side; we had good chances and I think we just let Celtic come into the game and they did what they do. They’re a good team and they punished us, punished our errors, and it was a disappointing night. When you come out of the traps like we did it’s hard to maintain that high intensity and sometimes there are spells when you have to sit off and have a breather. I think that’s what happened and it allowed them to grow into the game,” he said afterwards.

Josh Campbell knows a Hibs win at Tynecastle would be a huge mood booster

Paul Hanlon had an opportunity to throw Hibs a lifeline just before the break but his effort from Élie Youan’s knock-on following a long throw came back off the post. Had that chance gone in, it may well have been a different outcome, Campbell admitted.

“We said at half-time if it had gone in it could be a different story. It might have rattled them a wee bit. We went in 2-0 down but I thought we started the second half strongly as well but same again, we sat off them a bit more and that allowed them to grow into the game, and they punished us again. It’s very disappointing [after the 6-1 game]. The mood in the dressing room is very down, it’s not a nice feeling.”

Hibs now have an Edinburgh derby to look forward to, if that’s the right terminology, where a win would take them to within two points of their city rivals but defeat would widen the gap.

“We have another big game coming up so we have to put this behind us, take the key bits from the Celtic game, learn from it, and move on. We’ll go through the game, the goals, what we did well – because I felt we did do well at times – and we’ll look to take that into the game against Hearts,” Campbell continued.

Campbell gets to grips with Hearts' Alex Cochrane during the last derby clash

“The derby is massive and a win at Tynecastle would really boost the mood in the camp. Hearts have had a few big players injured and that’s a boost for us. We’ve got everyone back fit and firing so we’re looking forward to it. Everyone knows how good Kevin Nisbet and Aiden McGeady are, they are massive players for us. Nizzy was huge for us last season before he got injured and everyone knows what Geads is about, he’s one of the best players who has played in the league.”