GLASGOW, Nov 25, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - Australia's Martin Boyle was sent off
following Hibernian's 1-0 loss at Ross County on Wednesday, just days after
his hat-trick sent the Edinburgh club into the Scottish League Cup final.
Boyle's treble was the centrepiece of Hibs' 3-1 semi-final win over
Rangers at Hampden Park on Sunday that secured an appearance in next month's
final against Celtic, the other half of Glasgow's Old Firm.
But it was a different story on Wednesday as Hibs suffered a fifth
consecutive loss in the Scottish Premiership.
Blair Spittal's 72nd-minute goal separated the teams at Dingwall after the
substitute's cross evaded everyone before finding the back of the net.
To make matters worse for Hibs, they also had Christian Doidge sent off
after he appeared to rake his studs down the leg of David Cancola, with Boyle
seeing red for comments made towards referee Gavin Duncan after full-time.
"I know it's for something the referee said Martin said to him, which
Martin says he didn't," Hibs manager Jack Ross told BBC Radio.
"It's one person's word against the other. Unfortunately, it usually seems
to be the referee wins in that case.
"I think the referee believes it was directed towards him, while Martin's
opinion was it was an appraisal of his performance," he added.
"Two very different things. We will see how we deal with that."
In the meantime, Ross said there was no excuse for Hibs' league form.
"We are not on a good run in the league. It's not acceptable for a club of
our ambition and standing," said Ross.
"We need to be better... the performance level was OK but it needs to be
better than OK to win games and we need to get back to that as quickly as
possible in the league."
Ross County manager Malky Mackay was delighted by his side's first home
league win of the season.
"Overall to a man I asked them at half-time to go out and give the same
effort and energy," he said. "By doing that, it meant we got on the ball and
it allowed us to play our football, which I knew was going to be good."
