Under Pressure Lee Johnson insists Hibs had no excuses as he slammed his sides defending in a derby drubbing that stretched their winless run against Hearts to nine games.
A damaging afternoon also left the Easter Road boss fearing Rocky Bushiri could have broken a leg after an injury time challenge from Cammy Devlin. With their hopes of silverware now over in January the spotlight is now firmly on Johnson - who admitted Ryan Porteous has potentially played his last game for the club with Blackburn, Udinese, Watford and Toulouse vying for his signature.
And there was no hiding the Leith boss’ disappointment when he claimed nobody wanted to hear him talking about positives as he tries to bridge the gap with the Jambos. Johnson said: “It’s been too long since we won a derby. We know that and the players know that. I told the players there’s no excuses.
“We had international caps, 93 for McGeady, Scottish international Nisbet, Cadden has played for Scotland and Cabraja for Croatia, Elie Youan has gone through the French national system, Jeggo is an Australian international. So 11 v 11 we weren’t a million miles off today.
“We are unlucky with a couple of injuries but all teams have injuries and you have to deal with that. We are desperately trying to rectify it, increase the quality and reduce the quantity then bring our young players through. That’s how we bridge the gap with any team ahead of us at the moment.
“I thought we started extremely well on the front foot. We need to get that first goal more often than we’re getting it. And we did have opportunities to do that.
“We hit the post and their first opportunity comes from a breakaway. I think it’s a silly foul for Porto to make, although I’m not even sure it was a foul. But then we’ve got to defend the box. That’s something we need to be better at.
“At half-time we felt we had a helluva chance to get back into the game. The second goal is poor. It’s really poor defending, too easy for Shankland to come inside Cadden and open up and shoot.
“It was a decent finish but the difference up to that point was the clinical nature inside the box.
“In terms of control, will and skill we had a lot of it. But we’re out of a cup and we’re extremely disappointed. No-one wants to hear me talking about the positives.
“Hearts are just that little bit ahead of us at the moment and we need to bridge that gap as quickly as possible.”
Bushiri was carried off in injury time after a clash with Devlin and Johnson said: "It looks like a bad one. Touch wood he hasn't broken his leg but it certainly looked like that from the challenge."
Asked if the derby was Porteous’ last game for Hibs the boss added: "I honestly don't know.
"He's been brilliant in terms of his application and I thought again he was very good against Hearts. At the moment I couldn't give you a definitive answer on it. I think potentially, but he could be here next week or the week after, who knows?"
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