Dean Gibson: Manner of Partick Thistle victory was ideal preparation for Hibs Women ahead of derby

Hibs Women head coach Dean Gibson believes the manner of Wednesday night’s victory over Partick Thistle was the ideal preparation for Saturday’s derby showdown with Hearts Women at Easter Road.
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Partick led at half-time thanks to Cara Henderson’s opener, but Katie Lockwood’s goal straight after the restart got Hibs back in the game, and she added a second with 15 minutes remaining. Fellow substitute Brooke Nunn completed the turnaround at the death with her first strike in green and white.

Speaking afterwards Gibson told the Evening News: "A performance and win like that was important. We hadn’t scored in our last four but we weren’t expecting three against Partick, we would have taken a 1-0. But because we were a goal down, the victory feels better. If we’d won that game 3-0 over the course of two halves, you’d be happy you’d won, but we had to dig deep and show that bit of desire and mentality and in a derby you need all of that. If you leave one at home you’ll probably get beat.”

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Gibson is also hopeful Kirsty Morrison’s injury isn’t too bad. The forward was forced off during the first half against Partick Thistle after coming off worse in a fifty-fifty challenge and although the hope is that there is no long-term damage, the head coach is once again scratching his head at his side’s injury woes.

Hibs Women goalscorers Katie Lockwood and Brooke Nunn celebrate on Wednesday night. Picture: Hibernian FCHibs Women goalscorers Katie Lockwood and Brooke Nunn celebrate on Wednesday night. Picture: Hibernian FC
Hibs Women goalscorers Katie Lockwood and Brooke Nunn celebrate on Wednesday night. Picture: Hibernian FC

"We’ll probably have Joelle Murray back but we’ve lost Kirsty so our squad isn’t getting any bigger; it’s one in one out every game,” he said. “I don’t think Kirsty will be out for the same length of time as Shannon [McGregor] or Micky [McAlonie] but it’ll probably be a few days either way. We’ll get her assessed but she thinks she just hyper-extended her knee so hopefully it’s just that and she’ll be okay [for the Celtic game].

Gibson is currently without McGregor, McAlonie, Rachael Boyle, Rosie Livingstone, Crystal Thomas, and Ailey Tebbett and has had to manage one or two others in terms of knocks, but the squad is looking healthier than it was a few weeks ago.

"We had to put Katie on earlier than we wanted on Wednesday but she’s ready to do 90 minutes now and so is Joelle, but apart from Kirsty it’s probably as we were.”

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