Hibs manager Jack Ross has has accepted the criticism directed at his side after the 1-0 defeat by Livingston extended their woeful Premiership form and saw fans calling for the Easter Road boss to be sacked.
Two red cards and an injury to Ryan Porteous saw the Easter Road’s bad night compounded as Ross now faces losing Paul Hanlon and Paul McGinn to suspension and sweats over Porteous’ fitness.
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
While the Hibs boss should be in a positive place preparing for the looming League Cup final, he’s having to deal with a run of form that has seen Hibs slide to seventh in the table and left the travelling fans at the Tony Macaroni demanding owner Ron Gordon swing the axe.
Ross accepts that the stick comes with the territory in management and insists the blame should fall on him, calling the criticism “justified” and admitting the performance from his players was “nowhere near good enough.”
“It’s part of the job. I have done this for nearly 300 games now,” Ross said. “By and large I have pretty positive times as a manager.
“You know you will get criticised and that criticism grows when you are not producing positive results. We’re not doing that right now.
“There’s times where I would be more defensive if I felt the performance was good because everyone judges it on the end result.
“But tonight all the criticism I receive will be justified because I am in charge of that team.
“That level of performance was not good enough so the criticism should fall upon me.
“We were not good enough in all aspects of our play. We started the game well up to the concession of the goal. I know we have the immediate chance to equalise but our reaction to losing the goal for the rest of the game isn’t good enough in all aspects – energy, intensity, quality, discipline.
“That all falls on my shoulders. I own it, it’s my team and the team that was on the park for 60-70 minutes is nowhere near good enough to win games in the Premiership.
“When I say discipline I mean in terms of our defensive shape after the concession of the goal.
“The consequence of that is you put yourself in positions where you might earn cautions and it makes the weekend even more challenging being without a minimum two experienced defenders.”
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