Hibs boss Monty delivers verdict on dismal showing at McDiarmid

Nick Montgomery refused to blame Dylan Levitt for the mistake that handed Craig Levein’s St Johnstone the only goal of a brutal game at McDiarmid Park. And the Hibs boss admitted his team simply weren’t good enough – especially in the final third – to get a result from another tough away day.

Speaking after watching Levitt’s attempted pass out from a short goal kick go straight to Saints scorer Graham Carey, Monty insisted: "I don't need to speak to Dylan. It was a mistake, everybody makes mistake. It was a genuine mistake.

“Dylan has been absolutely fantastic for me, an exceptional footballer, but he maybe slips or just doesn't catch the ball right. What's disappointing is that when we gave the ball away, we didn't react to cover and recover the mistake.

“But credit to them, it's a good strike, right in the corner, so it's a difficult one for David Marshall. So there's no blame on anyone, it's a genuine mistake. But that’s fine.

“There are a lot of mistakes in football. They made a lot of mistakes in the first half today and we didn’t capitalise. Credit to them for capitalising on the one mistake. We didn’t put away the chances we had, didn’t create enough chances.

“That pitch was tough at times, people slipping over and missing the ball, but we didn't deserve to win the game. Did we deserve to lose it? On reflection of the whole game, probably not. But we did, we lost the game, and at 1-0, you know they are going to fight for everything.

“What we didn't have was enough going forward to create a real threat, that sort of played into their hands. It's not easy to break a team down when we were lacking that urgency in the front third.

“It felt like we weren't going to score today, and that's the most disappointing thing because when you look at the players we had on the pitch, we had a lot of attacking flair. Even with the subs that I made; they were very attacking. We just lacked a bit of creativity - and we got done by a mistake.”

Montgomery – who said he took off Lewis Miller at half-time because the defender was feeling ill and already on a booking - was at least relieved that VAR intervened to overturn a late red card that would have ruled Dylan Vente out of the Edinburgh derby, saying: “I think it would have been harsh. He genuinely just went to flick the ball around the corner and the guy ducked his head. Common sense prevailed and fair play to the referee for having a look, because there was no intent from Dylan to kick him in the head.

“Lewis was sick. He was coughing and spluttering at half-time. And he was on a yellow card, feeling out of breath.

“I could leave him on and maybe he gets sent off, which is what he did at Dundee. So when he wasn’t feeling well, I wasn’t risking that. That was the reason behind it.”

Saints boss Levein believes former Scotland goalie David Marshall was the only thing standing between Hibs and a heavier loss, saying: “We scored one, but Marsh made four top, top saves. I thought we created a lot of chances.”