‘That hurts most’ - inside the devastation of Hibs Hampden dressing room

Inside story of the devastation following Hibs’ loss to Aberdeen in the Viaplay Scottish League Cup semis

A picture of dejection - Hibs players at full-time.

Devastated, heartbroken, frustrated … and naïve. Of all the words used by Hibs captain Joe Newell in an emotional Hampden post-mortem, that last one carried, if not the most heft, then certainly the sharpest sting.

In admitting that he and his team-mates need to be more “street smart” in precisely the sort of tight contest that went against them on Saturday night, Newell was speaking from the depths of a wounded soul.

The epitome of an honest professional, Newell understands that anything he or his team-mates might say is likely to meet a wall of indifference – at best – from supporters who endured their Viaplay Cup semi-final loss to Aberdeen.

On the back of blowing a two-goal lead at home to Ross County last Tuesday night, Hibs have little credit in the bank with long-suffering fans.

“No matter what I say now, no one’s going to care, do you know what I mean?” said Newell. “I can talk about a process, a long-term plan or vision, but no one cares about that at the minute.

“The fans don’t want to hear it, and I completely get it. Everyone will hurt. But it’s been a tough week, conceding two goals to chuck away two points and now feeling like we should be in a final. It’s tough, but what can you do except dust yourself down and go again?

“There’s no other choice but to get on with it, embrace it and try to learn from it to motivate you. It hurts massively, and the dressing room is devastated, as you can imagine. It hurts more because of the way the game went; we should have come out on top. I thought we were the better side - but things just went against us.”

Speaking before he’d had a chance to watch back any of the contentious incidents that left Nick Montgomery so incensed over the vagaries of VAR, Newell provided some genuine insight into what the Hibs players went through as they celebrated Martin Boyle’s ‘goal’ early in the second half … only for his effort to be chalked off for an offside decision still far from clearcut.

“As a player, it’s heartbreaking when that kind of VAR call goes against you,” said the midfielder. “I think the longer it went on, I started to think: ‘Right, this must be close …’ But I’ve not watched it back, not watched the penalty claim.

“Again, without looking back at the Aberdeen goal, I claimed for a foul initially. I don’t know. If it’s not a foul, then it’s naïve from us to concede a counterattack goal with a man up. The ref said he checked for a foul. I was asking him, and he said there was no foul.”

Circling back to his use of the term naïve, a description that certainly applies to Lewis Miller going down looking for a foul without making sure he stops the breakaway by means fair or otherwise, Newell was asked if this team – as a collective – needed to be a touch more cute in their game management.

“I think so, yeah, especially in such a high stakes game, at nil-nil and with so much on the line,” he admitted. “You can call it being street smart, whatever. But it’s something we need to look at as a team.

“I thought we were really good. The first half was a bit cagey from both sides, just kind of sussing each other out. We then started the second half really well. I thought we were in control, had a few chances and obviously had the goal disallowed.

“Then they get a man sent off and, I dunno, my initial feeling is that it shouldn’t – but it hindered us a bit. They were already getting back in their shape anyway, soaking up pressure, with 11 men. So with 10 men it’s obviously really hard to break them down.

“But we need to look at that because it’s happened before, under previous managers, a few times. We’ve gone a man up and it hasn’t worked out for us. The coaching staff and the manager, analysis-wise are amazing, probably the best I’ve seen in terms of debriefs and preparation for games, the way they see it panning out.

“In terms of learning from it – what we can do better physically and tactically – we’ll be spot on with that. Emotionally, I think everyone has to remember the next time we’re here, how much it does hurt and use that as motivation.

“No disrespect to Aberdeen – they’ve gone a man down and dug out a 1-0 win, fair play to them – but I thought we were the better side throughout. There’s no qualms or complaints tactically. I thought the delivery of the gameplan went well, we were by far the better side, which is why it maybe hurts a bit more.”