Lee Johnson hailed the mental strength of Hibs defender Marijan Cabraja after their 2-2 draw with Rangers.
The Croatian left-back lost his father last week and flew home to attend his funeral on Thursday. Johnson didn’t start Cabraja at Easter Road yesterday but he came off the bench after just 28 minutes to play his part in the Hibees’ comeback. Trailing Gers in injury time, Josh Campbell hit a screamer to earn the home side a point. Cabraja collapsed on the turf at full-time and made an emotional speech to team-mates in the dressing-room. Johnson praised the defender’s character afterwards.
He said: “Cabrajal has shown amazing effort, resilience and character. He’s an amazing human. I don’t know how he managed to speak at the end but he pulled the lads and thanked them for all their support.
“Those situations bring you together and closer as a Hibs family.”
Johnson wasn’t happy with Hibs’ display in the first half against Rangers and that forced him into the early changes.
His team have scored three stoppage time goals already this season but he says they shouldn’t need to salvage something late on.
The Easter Road gaffer said: “I want to deliver to these fans high-tempo, front-foot, aggressive football.
“In the first half we didn’t but in the second half we did.
“What we need is a 96 minute complete performance which I don’t think we’ve seen enough of yet.
“We’ve got a point today against an Old Firm team by being aggressive.
“If that’s not proof that we need to play aggressively, I don’t know what is.
“We were poor in the first half but we gave a biblical team talk at half time where we reinforced the philosophy.
“By playing on the front-foot and being aggressive, we created the chaos that led to the incidents in the game.
“I’m not happy because there's more to do. We need a couple, a few ready-made players in.
“I’ve now had a good look at the level. I expect us to compete far better than we did in the first half.
“I’m here to drive it, I'm not here to sugar-coat it.
"That spirit needs to be consistent from minute one to minute 97."
Rangers were given a controversial penalty by ref Willie Collum that Johnston disagreed with - and he felt they should have had one of their own when Rocky Bushiri was fouled in the box by James Tavernier.
The visitors were then reduced to nine men when John Lundstram and Alfredo Morelos were both sent off.
Johnson said: “I don't think it was a penalty for them, I think we should have had one.
“I also don't think Lundstram's was a red card. The elbow (from Morelos) is probably a red.”
