More Hibs thrashings to come, Grant Holt warns rest of league

Hibs striker Grant Holt today claimed a big win had been coming for the Easter Road outfit '“ and predicted plenty more to come.
Grant Holt celebrates his first goal for Hibs in the 4-0 win over Morton. The striker feels the team are reaping the rewards of being more direct with their attacking play. Pic: Ian GeorgesonGrant Holt celebrates his first goal for Hibs in the 4-0 win over Morton. The striker feels the team are reaping the rewards of being more direct with their attacking play. Pic: Ian Georgeson
Grant Holt celebrates his first goal for Hibs in the 4-0 win over Morton. The striker feels the team are reaping the rewards of being more direct with their attacking play. Pic: Ian Georgeson

Holt and fellow new signings Andrew Shinnie and Brian Graham all claimed their first goal for the Capital club and top-scorer Jason Cummings his sixth of the season as Neil Lennon’s players cruised to victory over Morton.

The win, their fourth in a row, also sent 
title favourites Hibs top of the 
Championship table but, Holt 
insisted, their victories have been built on a rock-solid defence.

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The veteran hitman said: “It’s just nice to give someone a bit of a pumping. It’s been coming for weeks – we’ve just not been able to finish it off, myself included, so it was great to get a big win. I thought we were excellent. They came with a game plan to nullify us, but once we got the first goal it kind of relaxed us and I think we could have had six or seven in the second half.”

Having opened the floodgates, Holt believes there will be plenty more goals to come, citing his own goal – one of four headers – as an example of how more direct Hibs have become under Lennon.

He said: “I’ve been saying we need to put the ball in a little bit quicker and I think we managed that. To be fair to John McGinn, he put it in straight away and I was happy to get on the end of it.

“We played some good stuff and the good thing is we are a good squad of players. Martin Boyle came on, for example, and nearly had a hat-trick. That’s our strength in depth. We were able to bring on James Keatings too, and we’ll be able to score plenty of goals.

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“I think there will be more beatings to be handed out if we play like we did. We moved the ball around well but we’re still solid at the back which is a good thing for us. With big Marv [Bartley] sitting there and the defence do a fantastic job for us.

“They allow us to be more expansive and they are turning out clean sheets, which means we can attack with the confidence they are not going to give away goals.”

Holt and Graham have brought an obvious new dimension to Hibs, giving Lennon’s side the ability to be more direct as was evident against Morton, both scoring towering headers but, the 35-year-old claimed, he felt he and his team-mates had actually played better in beating St Mirren 2-0 the previous week.

He said: “I think we probably played better. I didn’t think we were that good in the first 25 minutes against Morton, but once we got the goal it calmed us down.”