Lee Johnson admits Hibs paid the price for taking their foot off the gas at Ibrox. But the Easter Road boss hopes his team will soon back back on the road to success once they get a clean bill of health.
Johnson was delighted to see his team motor out the traps with first half goals from Ryan Porteous and Kevin Nisbet. But they could not steer their way to the win in Glasgow over Rangers, leaving Johnson to say: “We faded a little bit physically, that was natural with the guys we had out on the pitch and our clearances became less solid, less assured.
“We have to focus on the positives, we have some good players coming back to fitness and we had some good players perform very well for that 45-50 minutes and in the first half who I thought we were outstanding.vWe were unlucky not to go 3-1 up when Elie Youan had the strike. So, it was disappointing but also encouraging in terms of giving us a performance to build on.
“When we get good players 90-minute fit, we will be a force to be reckoned with in the division.”
Johnson was certainly encouraged by the performance of Nisbet, who marked his return after 10 months out with a serious knee injury by getting on the scoresheet. The Leith gaffer added: “It is massive to have him back. A club with our resources, where we are, you can't not have your best players fit. It is as simple as that.
“I would have loved to have had a pre-season with this squad but we didn't have that so we are still building various parts of our overall picture and Nizzy is part of that. When you have a Scotland international at a club like this then it's important that he is fit.
“He has done extremely well and I'm delighted for him.”
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