Hibs stretched their unbeaten Premiership run to eight games with a draw at Ross County, but there will be frustration at not taking all three points.
The game got the go ahead despite the Global Energy Stadium suffering some damage during Storm Eowyn after a morning pitch inspection deemed the County pitch playable.
The Hibees led 1-0 for a long spell and seemed in control of the game, failing to properly kill it off by extending their advantage and earning some breathing space.
They paid for that when the Staggies were awarded a late penalty, their second of the game, this time fired home by Ronan Hale.
Manager David Gray admits it’s a positive to have remained unbeaten for so long but there is still that tinge of regret at not holding out for all three points.
And he wasn’t convinced by the penalty decision either, or the first one for that matter.
Gray’s takes on County penalties vs Hibs
The first Ross County spot kick came from a harsh handball decision against Nicky Cadden at the back post, as the ball struck his arm just at the side of his body.
It didn’t seem an unnatural position, he didn’t know anything about it and the ball was otherwise drifting harmlessly out.
The second came three minutes from the end as goalkeeper Jordan Smith came out to challenge Kieran Phillips and clipped his leg.
Gray felt both were harsh decisions, explaining: “Soft; extremely soft would be my understanding of both. I think the first one, especially the fact that nobody appeals for the first one at all. I actually think it’s really poor defending from us, and as I said to Nicky [Cadden] he switches off at the back post, so it’s poor defending and we should get punished for that anyway.
“The ball bounces and James Brown doesn’t get to the ball, but once Nicky reacts to go inside him, then naturally the ball goes past him. I think it’s impossible to turn with your hand at your side, so it does catch his arm as it goes past him, but there’s nobody coming in behind him, the ball’s just going to go out of play and clear the box.
“The letter of the law is: ‘Is his arm away from the body?’ Maybe, but you need to take these considerations into the decision as well, and I think it’s extremely soft, and nobody claims for it and nobody knew anything about it, so that’s frustrating, but then Jordan makes the save, which is great.
“The penalty in the second half was again, I think, soft. I asked the referee about it and his words were that he felt the goalkeeper came out in a reckless way and didn’t win the ball, so as soon as he does that, and there is a little bit of contact, the VAR isn’t going to intervene because they feel that there was contact.
“I’ve seen it back; I think my goalkeeper makes himself big, spreads himself to block or save, like you would do. I think the striker gets to the ball first and kicks it out of the pitch, and then momentum takes him into the goalie. I don’t think the goalie makes a second movement towards him at all, so I think it’s really harsh.
“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses, because we should have stopped the cross initially, we shouldn’t have run the ball out the pitch, there are other things we can do to make it better, but it does make it a wee bit more frustrating; the fact that we’ve come away with just a point, when, if we got through that moment, it would have been three points and down the road and job done.”
Hibs deserved win
Gray felt his side did enough to win the game despite not being at their best.
He added: “Yeah, I think we did enough over the piece. I don’t think we were brilliant, I don’t think it was a great game – I thought the pitch wasn’t conducive to playing free-flowing football, but I thought we dealt with the conditions well and got ourselves in front.
“Once we were in front, limited them to next to no chances at all, apart from the two penalties, and apart from the two penalties, I don’t think Jordan [Smith, goalkeeper] actually touched the ball really, so it showed how much control we had in the game without really doing enough ourselves.
“When you’re only 1-0 up, you do run the risk of being pegged back, but for the whole game, I felt pretty in control and thought we were going to hold on for three points.”