Steven Pressley admits what 'surprised' him about Hibs after struggling for Dundee solutions to Hibees threat
The Dundee manager had no complaints after Hibs’ win over the Dark Blues.
Steven Pressley admits Hibs left him and Dundee ‘surprised’ after emerging from the Dens Park clash with a 2-1 win.
Less than 72 hours on from their brutal Conference League play-off exit against Gent, the Easter Road side rallied to make it six points from nine at the start of the Premiership season, through Martin Boyle and Callum Wright goals. Joe Westley’s strike for Dundee made it a nervy finish but head coach David Gray’s side earned a deserved three points in the end.
Dundee counterpart Pressley admits some surprises from Hibs that left things like his side’s pressing at sea. It’s why the former Hearts captain is happy to hold his hands up ahead of Wednesday’s clash at home versus Kilmarnock.
What did Hibs do right vs Dundee?
Pressley said on Sportsound: “Over the course, there's no doubt Hibernian deserved to win. We looked a little bit disjointed. We weren't really cohesive in the way we wanted to press the game or cohesive in our build-up play. Hibernian came, they surprised us with a few things that they did. I didn't manage to find the right solutions.
"We're better than we showed. We didn't manage to do some of the simple things. We didn't win enough second balls. We just turned it over without managing to build any sustained pressure on them. We're disappointed because we had a chance to gain a little bit of momentum. It wasn't to be. We have to take the medicine and respond."
He added in his post-match presser: "We didn't manage to get our pressure quite right. Hibs gave us a lot of problems, we also didn't pick up enough second balls and weren't effective enough with the ball. That's something we need to work and keep improving on, because we never really got control of the game. We turned the ball over a lot.
Steven Pressley on Dundee 1-2 Hibs
"Credit to Hibs, they certainly deserved it, but there are parts of our performance we have to analyse and improve on. The one thing about the group is, they never give up and I have to give them great credit for that, because we didn't manage to quite play our way."
“We didn't manage to reach the standards we expect of ourselves, and Hibs were very good. They caused us a lot of problems and we just couldn't quite come to grips with them until the latter part of the game. That's disappointing and we have got to learn from that."