Hibernian FC

Head Coach Joelle Murray was pleased with some aspects of her team's play against Celtic on Sunday afternoon, but insists the team must perform for the full 90. 

A strong start at Meadowbank Stadium in our Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Fourth Round tie against the Glasgow club brought with it little reward, as the Hibees trailed 2-0 at half-time in Murray's first match in charge of the Club.

A terrific reaction after the restart saw Hibs level proceedings by the 50-minute mark, though a winner would be found for the visitors just two minutes after Eilidh Adams' equaliser.

Despite Hibs creating plenty of chances, including Rosie Livingstone striking the crossbar late on, the Hoops would hold onto a 3-2 win and advance to the next stage of the competition.

"It's disappointing because I feel like we started the first half very, very well," Murray told Hibs TV. "We played with intensity. We asked the girls to start on the front foot.

"We were aggressive and then we stopped doing that, which I think gave Celtic a little bit of a lift, a bit of momentum. Then we saw that again in the second half when we came out. We saw that intensity, that aggression, the quality on the ball and we get ourselves back in the game.

"I think for me the message to the girls was we can't play 60 minutes of a 90-minute game at that intensity with that aggression because teams will be ruthless and clinical in and around those other 30 minutes. 

"We don't think Celtic had to work that hard to get their goals in all honesty. We can't do that. We can't gift goals against a decent opposition like Celtic. So, that's the frustrating one.

"That's a big frustration and disappointment for us because I think outwith those goals, we got everything that we wanted from the girls."

Trailing by two goals at the break appeared harsh following a promising start from the girls at Meadowbank, which saw a number of goal-scoring chances not converted.

Murray was pleased to see a barnstorming start to the second 45 result in two quickfire goals, but laments her side quickly conceding a third to the visitors in the manner they did.

"The girls knew they were disappointed in their own performances. So, we just said we need more of the 12 minutes that they gave us at the beginning of the first half.

"We need more aggression and I'm not meaning physically. I'm meaning aggressive on the press, aggressive in every single action. Nothing in particular was said other than kind of revisiting everything we've spoke about the last two weeks, everything that we've asked of them the last two weeks.

"We wanted them to get back to that level and they did. And they did it quite quickly. That's why it made the Celtic third goal so frustrating because it was two minutes after we equalised.

"And, of course, in football that's always an important time straight after you score and we just didn't manage ourselves very well in that particular moment."