Mixed Emotions For Gray After Kilmarnock Draw

Hibernian FC Head Coach David Gray had mixed emotions after his side drew 1-1 with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

An added time penalty from Bruce Anderson stopped the Hibees taking away all three points, in what was a real physical battle in Ayrshire.

When speaking to Hibs TV after the game, Gray gave his thoughts on the performance.

“It’s a difficult one to take again. Losing the goal late on leaves us with a really disappointing taste.

“For up to 90 minutes in the game we dealt with the physical threat that they had. We knew coming here it would be that kind of game because they’ve had loads of success having done that in the past. We stood up to that physicality.

“When we get ourselves in front there were a lot of positive performances. Nectar gave us some steel and quality on the ball, and Kwon was excellent as well getting from box to box. There were positives within the performance.

“You can see we’re lacking a bit in confidence, especially in certain players, because we’re not as free-flowing as we’d like to be. We need to be better on the ball.

“The international break comes at a really good time for us. It gives us a chance to work with everyone and make them fitter and stronger, to get the squad where we want it to be.”

It was a fairly even game at Rugby Park with Hibs generally dealing well with Kilmarnock’s direct style of play, however, a lapse in concentration cost the Hibees late on.

“As I said, we dealt with their physical threat well, which is something we didn’t do well in the last game, so from that point of view we were better.

“But you can’t do that better for 90 minutes, that game was 96 minutes, so you have to do it for the full time.

“If you’re not playing as well as you want to in possession, you know you need to be better and stronger defensively, and see the game out.

“It was one moment switching off again and that makes this result hard to take to be honest.”

Watch the full interview below on Hibs TV.