Hibernian Football Club News

• Nickname:The Hibees
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Mixu Paatelainen

• Ground:Easter Road
• Capacity:18,000

Collins: Cup loss was fair

27 Sep 2007 - 16:46:00

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Hibernian boss John Collins admitted his side deserved to be soundly beaten by Motherwell during Wednesday night's CIS Cup action.

Despite taking an 11th minute lead through Clayton Donaldson, Hibs were 3-1 down by half-time and went on to lose the third round clash 4-2.

Speaking after the match, Collins admitted that the best team had won, saying: "Over the 90 minutes it's a fair result. They played terrifically well in a 30-minute period in the first half.

"We were off the pace, a couple of yards short across the pitch and they punished us. We were beaten by a team that played very, very well."

Collins went on to deny that the result was entirely down to a failure to recover following their thrilling 3-2 SPL win over Celtic on Sunday.

He explained: "We had to work for the victory at the weekend. Maybe that's an excuse, but we were sluggish and they were sharper to the ball in the first half.

"But you have got to give them credit, they were hungry, with good movement and we struggled to cope with that 30-minute period."