Manner of Hibs defeat at Livingston 'sums up our season', says David Gray

Hibs interim boss David Gray felt the manner of his side’s defeat by Livingston summed up the Easter Road side’s season.

The visitors had 18 attempts on goal in West Lothian but none on target, and lost the game by way of Scott Pittman’s 57th minute strike.

"I’m very disappointed to lose the game. I thought first half we were good and dominated the game pretty much. We created lots of chances and nullified them a lot; passed the ball really well, but we lost the game,” Gray said afterwards.

"I thought we should have been a bit more clinical, taken our chances, but that sums up our season. Eighteen shots on goal and nothing on target shows where we're struggling at the moment, which is putting the ball in the net at the top end of the pitch.

"And that's not just the forward players, it's everyone involved.

"Credit to Livingston; second half they came out and had a reaction to the way we had played in the first half which we expected. They got their goal and we didn't really recover from that."

Asked if Hibs were missing Kevin Nisbet, who has been injured since the end of February, Gray replied: “Definitely not;

“We won last week and confidence was high during the week in training.

Hibs interim boss David Gray issues instructions from the dugout at the Tony Macaroni Arena

“The bigger concern would be if we were dominating the ball and not creating chances. We need to be far more clinical at the top end of the pitch.

“You can’t be defending for the whole game. We’ll be in on Monday and work on finishing in training.

“A lot of it is confidence and when you train it has to be with a desire to be as good as you can be and hope it comes off in games."

Gray firmly believes Hibs can still finish seventh but they will need maximum points from their remaining games against Aberdeen, Dundee, and St Johnstone.

"The objective is to finish seventh and we can still do that,” he declared.

“It’s within our capabilities and it’s up to the players to come up with a reaction.

“If you’re not putting it in towards the end of the season then people start to question your character or determination.”