Lewis Stevenson thought a place on the Hibs bench beckoned for him on Saturday- so it was a ‘shock to the system’ when he found himself playing 81 minutes.
The experienced full-back was named on the bench for the weekend’s 1-1 draw with Livingston. Christian Doidge opened the scoring for the Hibees before Aaron Taylor-Sinclair leveled things.
Doidge had scored for Hibs. (Photo by Ewan Bootman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Stevenson found himself playing from the start due to Joe Newell’s late injury. He aggravated an ankle problem he picked up against Kilmarnock last weekend, something the wideman was subsequently subbed because of at Rugby Park.
He looked to have got over that for Hibs’ latest home clash. Newell clearly wasn’t though and it left Stevenson rapidly trying to adjust from sitting on the bench to playing a full-blooded 81 minutes.
“It was a bit of a shock to the system but ten minutes into the game you forget about it and you’re ready to go,” said Stevenson. “It was his ankle from last week but I think he thought it was going to be alright.
Matchday shock for Lewis Stevenson. (Photo by MB Media/Getty Images)
“Maybe when he’s lifted it to go on a longer run he’s hurt it again. You’re supposed to be ready to be called upon. You never think it’s going to happen, I was doing keepy-uppy’s or something!
“I should be experienced enough to expect the unexpected but I wasn’t. Livingston are a decent team and they are where they are in the league on merit so at the end of the year that might be looked at as a good point.
“We aren’t going to be too hard on ourselves, the conditions weren’t great, but we’ll go into next week with our unbeaten run still going. We’ll see what happens.”