Hibs boss Lee Johnson slammed Will Fish for the “ridiculous” challenge that gifted Dundee United the 90th minute spot kick.
It’s now four defeats on the spin for his side heading into Saturday’s massive derby with Hearts at Easter Road. But it looked like the Leith men would at least leave Tannadice with a point with the game balanced at 1-1 after Mykola Kukharevych cancelled out Steve Fletcher's early opener.
Then came the decisive moment in the 90th minutes when Fish lunged in on Fletcher who was heading away from goal to concede a spot kick from which Jamie McGrath sealed three huge points for bottom dogs United. And Johnson said: "It's a ridiculous challenge to make. Ridiculous. He actually had a chance to make amends at the other end, but I felt the big moment was Élie Youan's opportunity towards the end. Who'd be a football manager? Human beings, eh?
"Disappointed with the result. I thought the performance was better, technically. We controlled the game in the first half, certainly in the middle third - we didn't have enough action in the final third outside the first ten minutes. Then they scored and they had something to hold onto. I was quite pleased with the patience; even though there was a bit of frustration I felt we were doing enough to tire them out.
"We then changed it up; we brought Mykola Kukharevych on and went a little bit more direct and it caused a few problems. We had chances; Kevin Nisbet hit the bar, we had two or three good chances that flashed across the box but we had to lose the man in midfield to have the power inside the middle of the goal. We scored a really good goal and I was delighted with that, and we looked like the only team who were going to win it.
"Then we had a breakaway with 20 yards of space, Jair Tavares kicks it too far, they end up winning a throw-in, we're not across enough, we lose the first header and then the distances between the two centre-halves was too big."
Hibs remain five points off Hearts and seven behind third-placed Aberdeen heading into the derby clash before they head to St Johnstone for the final game before the break. And Johnson added: "They're all big games, but it feels like we have two cup finals coming up. Neither team is going into the derby in great form. I feel like we really need the fans for this one, it's massive.
"We haven't lost confidence per se, but I just think there's a lot of frustration in the fact we haven't picked up points. Certainly a draw minimum, but probably three points and we would be going into the Hearts game with the ability, if we'd beaten Dundee United, to go above them if we beat them.
"And that was our mentality coming into this game but football's football and you have to bounce back very quickly. You can't lick your wounds for too long and we'll have to prepare very well to beat Hearts now."
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