Familiar frustrations for Paul Heckingbottom as Hibs lose unbeaten run

Paul Heckingbottom pointed to a lack of quality in the final third for Hibs losing their unbeaten league run during his stewardship with a 1-0 defeat at Ibrox.

Paul Heckingbottom applauds the players at full-time.

Rangers striker Jermain Defoe struck the only goal of the game four minutes before half-time. The visitors had started brightly but quickly fell out of things and were deservedly behind at the break.

Things didn't immediately improve after the restart, though that changed after the introduction of Thomas Agyepong and Florian Kamberi shortly after the hour mark.

From there Hibs had three good chances in which to equalise, including a glorious late opportunity from Kamberi that drew a save from Allan McGregor.

Despite the Rangers goalkeeper being sent off, and the hosts finishing the match with midfielder Ross McCrorie between the sticks, the visitors couldn't find the breakthrough.

For the Easter Road manager, the failure to convert in the final third has been an issue for some weeks now, even when his side have been winning.

"We were really pleased first half hour," said Heckingbottom. "We tried to win the ball back in Rangers’ half and we did and we broke them a lot.

"It’s been story for us, even when we win games I generally keep saying we should have created more chances. It’s final pass, final bit of quality, which means we are not getting efforts on goal."

"We kept ball well for long spells and then Rangers scored when they were on top in last 15 minutes of the first half.

"At half time did not want to change anything, did not want to go chasing.

"We knew we had the bench to come on. We did that but when we created we did not score, that’s why we got beat."