'As soon as you do it you’re like ‘aw, Hearts next week, shouldn’t have done that' - Hibs' Ryan Porteous opens up on red card against Rangers

Hibs defender reflects on a bad night
Ryan Porteous is sent off against Rangers. The defender says he has learnt his lesson following the dismissal. Picture: SNS GroupRyan Porteous is sent off against Rangers. The defender says he has learnt his lesson following the dismissal. Picture: SNS Group
Ryan Porteous is sent off against Rangers. The defender says he has learnt his lesson following the dismissal. Picture: SNS Group

Hibs defender Ryan Porteous has insisted he’s learned his lesson from the sending off which has left him fighting for his place in the team.

The Scotland Under-21 player was shown a straight red after felling Rangers Borna Barisic as the club lost 3-0 to Rangers, ruling him out of Hibs’ final two games of 2019.

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The fact that the first of those would have been his first Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle hit hard although the pain was softened somewhat as Hibs defeated arch-rivals Hearts 2-0 with two goals from Martin Boyle.

But having watched veteran defender Darren McGregor, who had only just recovered from a knee injury which had sidelined him for four months, step in for the trip to Gorgie and the following game away to Livingston, Porteous conceded he can’t simply expect to go straight back in now his suspension is over.

He said: “Daz has gone right in there and done exactly what Daz would do at Tynecastle. It’s a place where he’s always put on a good show personally and as a team, he’s got them together. He’s a real leader and captain material in there.

“When you’ve got that in depth with Adam Jackson as well, it’s still disappointing to get sent off but you can rely on them to step in and hopefully it wasn’t too much of a miss.”

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Porteous revealed he realised immediately the implications of his actions but insisted it was a split-second decision to make the challenge he did, one which, in retrospect he admitted he should have pulled out of.

He said: “Irrespective to whether I thought it was a red card, if I didn’t, if the fans did or didn’t or anything like that, there was probably no need to make the tackle at all. So if you learn from that.

“As soon as you do it you’re like ‘aw, Hearts next week, shouldn’t have done that’. It is genuinely a half second you’ve got think about whether I’ve got to make that tackle or I’ve not got to make that tackle.

“We were 3-0 down to Rangers, we had Hearts again the next week so we probably should have just defended and played with our slippers on really, to try and not get injured.

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“Instincts do kick in. You’ve seen me make worse tackles than that and get away with it, but it’s fine lines with a defender. You can get sent off for stuff like that and get away with it. A couple of months ago I went up to Ross County and there was a tackle that was arguably worse and I got a yellow card.

“You can’t slate here and sit referees or panels or anything like that. In my opinion it was probably a red card.” If the boys had lost that or got a poor result, then I would’ve been really disappointed. But the boys got a positive one and hopefully I didn’t let them down because of that.

“They’re not the kind of group that would stick me in it. We’ve got a lot of depth in that position but hopefully I can be in there for the next one. It was a tackle that I didn’t need to make so I’ll learn from it.”