Gray: There’s Plenty Of Football To Be Played

“There’s plenty of football still to be played in this tie” said Hibernian FC Head Coach David Gray after his side were beaten in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League Play-Off against Legia Warsaw.

Gray’s side fell two goals behind in the first half, despite creating a number of chances, but Josh Mulligan’s late goal has given the Hibees hope going into the second leg in Poland.

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

“I have mixed thoughts because of how I’m feeling straight after the game. We have to remember it’s a defeat over 90 minutes in a tie that’s over 180.

“The goal we scored is a massive goal. It gives us extra belief going over there.

“We’ve already demonstrated away from home in Europe already that we’re a good side. We go into the game behind in the tie, which is something the players haven’t experienced, but we’re in a position where we can take a lot of belief and momentum from that goal, and the level of performance we put in for large periods of the game.

“There are clearly areas we need to improve, and we said that to the players, but we need to believe we can go and do it.

“For large periods of the game, I can’t fault the players’ bravery, effort and the way they went after them. We need to be clinical when we get opportunities and tidier in certain situations.

“We went toe-to-toe with a side that got to the Quarter-Finals of this competition last season. There’s plenty of football still to be played in this tie.”

We now have a week to prepare for the second-leg, with the Falkirk game being postponed.

“The opportunity to postpone the Falkirk game is a benefit,” said Gray. “It stops you having distractions or players picking up knocks or niggles. It gives us time to reset, look at areas we can improve, and to get the players ready to play.

“We got minutes into Jamie McGrath and Nicky Cadden who have just come back from injury, and there’s more minutes for some of the new boys too. The squad is in a good place.

“The big thing, which I said to the players, is we need to believe we can turn this around. For large periods of the game we were good, it needs to be better, but momentum is everything.

“We’ve got nothing to lose, we know what the challenge is, we’re one goal down going into a game of football where there’s everything to play for.”