Zemmama claims missile near-miss

27 September 2009 10:42
Zemmama angered the home supporters by celebrating in front of the East Stand after scoring from a 55th-minute free-kick.[LNB]The Moroccan later appeared to take evasive action as he went to take a corner in front of the same stand and referee Steve Conroy picked something off the grass and put it in his pocket.[LNB]"They tried to hit me with a lighter or a whistle but they didn't," Zemmama said.[LNB]"I touched it with my hand. I didn't mention anything to the Motherwell fans. I'm sorry if I stayed near them but I was just celebrating my goal and I didn't mean any harm."[LNB]Zemmama appeared to make a triumphant gesture towards the Well fans while he was being warned by Conroy over his celebrations, but he claimed his raised arms were meant as an apology.[LNB]"I was saying sorry to the fans," Zemmama said.[LNB]"The referee didn't book me, he just told me 'don't do it again'."[LNB]The incident failed to dampen Zemmama's joy at scoring on his first Hibernian start since April 2008. The 25-year-old curled home from a difficult angle to catch John Ruddy out at his near post.[LNB]His counter-attack also helped set up Colin Nish's early opener, which was cancelled out by Mark Reynolds' 35th-minute header.[LNB]Motherwell looked on top either side of the break but Derek Riordan was afforded yards of space to put Hibs back in front in the 51st minute and the home side never recovered from Zemmama's goal.[LNB]Hibs boss John Hughes, whose side have gone level on points with second-placed Rangers, was delighted with his players' work rate.[LNB]"The games we have lost we have not been competing well enough," Hughes said.[LNB]"We worked hard today and got our rewards. I felt Motherwell were better in terms of ball retention in the first half but with us on the counter and the attacking players at our disposal, I thought we could have scored more."[LNB]Motherwell boss Jim Gannon was disappointed that some players did not carry out their roles as instructed.[LNB]He said: "The manner in which we played in the first half, and getting the equalising goal, I thought if we tweaked a few things we would see an improvement.[LNB]"Unfortunately we saw some of the aspects I wasn't pleased about re-emerge.[LNB]"Once it went to 3-1, certain players lacked the experience to recover from a situation like that."[LNB]Gannon, who suffered the first domestic loss as Well manager, added: "I was a little disappointed that certain aspects that we worked on in training weren't evident, especially in terms of penetration down the flanks.[LNB]"There were times when the game was open and our players showed a poor choice of pass. We did look open when they counter-attacked but that wasn't a major worry of mine.[LNB]"If players play the shape the way I asked them to, there is always a strategy to defend the counter-attack.[LNB]"There were a couple of players who didn't fulfil what I wanted them to do and we looked vulnerable for it."[LNB][LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk