Newell On Disappointing Opening Day Defeat

Hibernian Captain Joe Newell was extremely frustrated with both the result and performance level as we fell to an opening day 3-0 defeat to St Mirren.

Three goals in the second half secured the points for the home side, with Roland Idowu and Oisin Smyth on target in Paisley.

Speaking to Hibs TV after the match, Newell was particularly annoyed with the manner of the defeat and the timing of the goals we conceded.

“We’re angry and disappointed. We’ve worked so hard in pre-season and we all had such a good feeling coming here but in the blink of an eye, we threw the game away ourselves. It is a bad start. 

“The first half was good, but it’s hard to come out and speak straight after a game because we need to analyse it properly. But the first half is irrelevant as we let ourselves down as a collective in the second half. 

“You need to be strong in both boxes, defend well and put your chances away and unfortunately today we didn’t do either."

The Hibees had chances at key times in the game, but we didn't take them and were punished by the hosts who were clinical in front of goal.

“St Mirren are a good side, we knew what to expect when we arrived. We we knew they would be strong, resolute and hard-working and as you saw today they were clinical. 

“We felt we had a good few weeks coming into this but we’ve let ourselves down and we are going to have to dust ourselves down. I don’t want to get too down on it, it’s the start of a very long season - everyone is more than confident that the Club and the team will be going in the right direction this season. 

“There is a lot to learn from today, but we have to get away from that performance and the way we folded. That is the main message and thing that we need to work on straight away.”