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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Martin McMillan

Montgomery taking Hibs lessons learned from first defeat into Celtic clash

Hibernian head coach Nick Montgomery believes he and his players have learned from his first defeat in Scotland and can take that into their home clash with Celtic.

An attacking Hibs line-up lost 4-0 against Rangers at Ibrox last Saturday as their six-match unbeaten run came to an abrupt halt.

They have the chance to show they have taken lessons on board when they host the cinch Premiership leaders on Saturday.

Quoted on his club’s website, former Central Coast Mariners boss Montgomery said: “I want to see a reaction from last week’s result. There were a lot of positives to take out of the game, but I want to see us evolve as a team and to see us develop.

“One thing that let us down was the transition defensively and switching off in key moments.

“We made basic errors as a team in terms of our defensive structure, so we’ve worked hard to fix that because against the top teams you can’t guess, you have to do it right all of the time because the moment you switch off, you’ll get punished; that’s what happened last week.

“There were a lot of learnings from last week for myself and for the team, and I’m one that learns from defeats. We move on this weekend and we’re really looking forward to the game.”

Montgomery, who revealed long-term absentees Chris Cadden and Harry McKirdy had both been back on the training pitch with physios this week, added: “It’s been a good week. We managed to get a game in on Monday which was against Sunderland for some of the boys to get some minutes in.

“We’ve recovered well from Rangers and prepared as well as possible for what is a tough game against a very good team in Celtic.

“We’re at home, at Easter Road, with a good crowd, so everyone is looking forward to the game.”

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