David Gray praises Hibernian for ‘rising to the occasion’ in win over Falkirk

Hibernian head coach David Gray hailed his players for handling a pressure situation after his side boosted their European hopes with a 3-1 win at Falkirk.

Two headers from Josh Campbell and a first-time strike from Jordan Obita put Hibs in total command before half-time and they stood firm after substitute Ben Broggio struck from outside the box for Falkirk.

The Bairns were looking to move above Hibs into fifth place in the William Hill Premiership, but Gray’s side restored a five-point cushion and ensured they will go into the final two games with some chance of leapfrogging Motherwell into fourth and a guaranteed European position.

Gray’s side had only won once in seven matches – not helped by four red cards in three games – to hand Falkirk a real opportunity to move above them. But the visitors took control when Campbell headed home from Obita’s third-minute corner.

Gray said: “The boys really deserved it. I’m delighted for them, I thought they were brilliant, especially that first-half performance for what we asked the players to do, the game plan, coming to a real difficult place, the surface.

“I don’t enjoy it myself, even watching games on it, I think it’s really difficult, but we definitely played the percentages really well, scored three really good goals and then the second half was a real professional performance.”

Gray added: “Unfortunately the last three weeks have been really tough, frustrating, a bit self-inflicted as we know, but the players got what they deserved for what they’ve put in in the last three or four games, three games especially.

“There was a lot of pressure on the players because Falkirk, in the last three games, have moved closer to us, closed that gap.

“So it was a big performance at the right time for the players and they responded in exactly the right way. The players rose to the occasion.”

Falkirk manager John McGlynn admitted his side’s defending let them down from the opening goal and beyond.

“Hibs are a big, strong physical team, that’s the way they played as well, they used all of that,” he said.

“But we have to stand up and be counted, we’ve got to defend it much, much better. We don’t defend it. And we lose a goal very, very early, which gives Hibs a lot of encouragement.

“Our defending was really poor on the day. Same defence as last week, they could get a clean sheet against Motherwell, a team that scored three goals against Rangers the week before.

“That just sums up football. It’s crazy how we didn’t defend these situations better.”