Pundits brand Hibs 'basic' 'one-dimensional' and criticise defensive errors in Scottish Cup final defeat to St Johnstone
The Hibees fell to Shaun Rooney’s first half header and could not find a leveller in 90 agonising minutes at Hampden.
Premier Sports’ panel of Chris Sutton, Ally McCoist and former Saints manager Derek McInnes couldn’t help but be impressed by St Johnstone’s central defenders Jamie McCart, Liam Gordon and captain Jason Kerr. Sutton said the dominant trio “monstered” Hibs frontman Christian Doidge and were worthy winners.
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He said: “They thoroughly deserved the victory. I really like Doidge but the three centre-halves who we have spoken about a lot this season – they monstered him all afternoon.
“I think Hibs were a bit basic at times and lacked guile but take nothing away from St. Johnstone.”
McCoist added: “Chris is right, I thought Hibs wear a bit one-dimensional particularly towards the end of the game and I know an element of it is you want to get the ball into the opposition box and start them panicking a bit but they were disappointing in wide areas and for the balls coming in, the back three for St Johnstone were very dominant.”
SCOTTISH CUP FINAL RECAP: St Johnstone 1 Hibs 0 as it happened
Defensive praise couldn’t be echoed for Hibs as Derek McInnes added: “Jack [Ross] will know that the first goal in any game is critical especially against St. Johnstone.
“We’ve praised St.Johnsone's quality for the goal but the defensive element is so poor and deserves to be punished and unfortunately from Hibs’ view they never had enough in them to get back into the game.”
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