“It was a big game for us, as Hibs fixtures always are, and it’s disappointing to come away having lost. Hibs are clearly making a big play to finish third this season, they’ve held onto their players through the window despite big money offers, and they have added to their squad. The games between us are obviously important ones with regards to the final positions in the league. We’ve won the last two but sadly we lost this one.

“I felt there was nothing in it at the start of the game and certainly the penalty decision had a big bearing on how the first half played out. I think Willie Collum is one of our best referees, but I think that’s a poor decision. Murphy’s done well to get in the box but then he’s toe poked the ball into the side netting. Lewis is trying to stop his momentum and Murphy’s just run into him. Having seen it again, it’s such a harsh decision.

“From then on, I didn’t think we responded well enough and Hibs finished the first half the better side. Boyle’s movement was good, Joe’s made a good save from him, and Hibs had the initiative. Joe showed good character to come back from the disappointment of Tuesday, as we knew he would. He’s a top goalkeeper, simple as that.

“We made changes early in the second half, bringing Hendry and McGinn on to try and get three up against their three defenders and to give Fraser more support, but that did leave us a wee bit more exposed and Boyle’s speed and movement capitalised on that again. That was probably their only chance second half but they had the game won at that point, it was up to us to make something happen. Despite loads of effort from the players, getting into good areas, the quality of our crossing wasn’t good enough, we have to be honest about that.

“We are going through some changes, some players have moved on and we have injuries too. Last time we were at Easter Road, we won with a front line of Hedges and Wright tucked in behind Watkins, we were fluid, we had a lot of speed about us. Trying to reinvent the frontline in January has been difficult and we got Fraser and Callum in for a reason, because they’ve not been playing. Unless you’re spending big money, that’s what you have to accept and you do have to have patience.

“Hornby, Herndry and Kamberi, when we can get him in, they will help us, but it will take time. Kamberi knows the league, he’s been a good performer at this level, Hornby will do well for us once he gets up to speed and get minutes under their belts, Hendry is a like for like to get Bruce Anderson more game time at Accies and to give Callum an opportunity to impress here. Once those three get up to speed, they’ll give us more punch at the top end of the pitch.

“Saying that, we have to defend better than we did for the second goal, but the important thing is for us to work hard in training and to create more of a goal threat and get back to winning ways next Saturday.

“We’re going through a bad spell but having been through it before, the way out of it is to stick together, work hard and do all we can to turn things round. We’ve been used to far better than this over the seasons here and we want to get back to that again as soon as we can.”