McCall wants amends for ‘worst’ loss

The Steelmen’s performance in the 3-0 Clydesdale Bank Premier League defeat at home was described as “the worst we’ve been” by McCall, whose only consolation was that his side remain third in the table. The Well boss, though, resisted the temptation to make changes for tonight’s match.

“We are going to go the same again,” said McCall. “There will be no knee-jerk reaction after one poor performance.

“The lads have got us 13 points and a decent position in the league so hopefully it was just a bad day at the office.

“I have confidence in them and so we will start with the same line-up. We had a little chat about the St Johnstone game yesterday morning, I think we were all disappointed and angry, naturally.

“That is the poorest we have been in possession since I’ve been here. It was sloppy and poor and we didn’t have any energy in the second half.

“We were excellent against Dunfermline recently and so Saturday was like chalk and cheese.

“Thankfully we have a game [tonight] to bounce back.

“We are looking forward to getting it out of our system with a good, strong, positive performance.”

Hibs threw away a two-goal lead at Dunfermline on Saturday and are only being kept off the bottom of the SPL by Inverness’s inferior goal difference.

However, McCall, who worked with new Hibs assistant manager Billy Brown at Bradford, prefers to focus on seeing some improvement from his players.

“Hibs have a lot of good individuals and attacking options but are going through a sticky spell,” he said.

“But it wouldn’t have mattered who we were playing tonight, we are looking at ourselves.

“We will be positive, we want a good cup run again.

“All the boys are determined to do that and so we need to bounce back from Saturday with a really good performance.”