Boyle: We Gave Our All But Came Up Short

Martin Boyle was disappointed Hibernian were not able to take a positive result from their defeat to Hearts on Sunday, but insisted he and his teammates gave their all despite coming up short at Easter Road.

Raphael Sallinger and Felix Passlack both received a red card at as an 86th-minute goal from Blair Spittal saw the visitors record a late victory, and Boyle says the team's discipline needs to be better if we are to achieve our objectives this season.

Our No10 had earlier put us ahead after seven minutes, before a combination of Lawrence Shankland and Warren O'Hora bundled the ball over the line to equalise midway through the second half.

And while our captain saw several positives, such as our character and resilience, he emphasised that our own mistakes are impacting our ability to come away from matches with all three points.

“It’s certainly not ideal,” Boyle told Hibs TV.

“Obviously, we need to address the discipline in the squad the last few weeks. It's certainly let us down.

“The boys that stayed on the pitch today and the boys that came on can certainly keep their heads held high. A point would have been really satisfying for us, but going down to nine men is certainly not ideal.

“We nearly dug it out. Smude (Jordan Smith) being out in the dark for a while, coming in and making a few saves.

“We can definitely keep our heads held high, but it's an Edinburgh derby and you don't like being beat.

“It’s always nice getting an early goal. We did that last time here, and we performed really well and got the three points, but some of the decisions today from the lads let us down.

“We stuck together, we defended really well, but we conceded probably two sloppy goals that we could have avoided, but it was a tough task.”

Despite the defeat, we remain in fifth place in the William Hill Premiership, and with four games left - two of which are at home - the skipper says it’s time to refocus and get ready for the remaining challenges ahead.

He added: “I can be proud of the boys, myself included. We gave everything for the cause, like we should for this Club, and everyone's got to be fighting.

“We'll have to pick ourselves back up and go again next week. We just have to stick together. The atmosphere today was bouncing, it was electric. We didn't get the result we wanted, but hopefully the atmosphere is the same next week, and we can get a result.”