David Gray was delighted Hibernian recorded another clean sheet as they extended their undefeated record to 12 games with a 0-0 draw against St Mirren.
It was far from a classic in Paisley and Hibs were indebted to goalkeeper Jordan Smith after a brilliant double save from Toyosi Olusanya and Mark O’Hara in the second half to record their third consecutive clean sheet.
Hibs’ only real chance fell to Warren O’Hara in the first half but the visitors defended well throughout and coped well after Alasana Manneh’s red card on 84 minutes.
“The clean sheet is a big positive because we pride ourselves on that,” Gray admitted. “That’s the biggest thing because if you’re keeping clean sheets then you can’t lose games of football, so that’s a good habit to get into.
“We were reliant on the goalkeeper, makes a big save in the second half. And then I think if you look at Rocky (Bushiri) getting man of the match, his defensive display was excellent.
“I actually thought we defended the box reasonably well and we needed to be defensively good today because we were by no means good enough to really go and win the game.
“I thought it was a really poor game with no real quality within it. We found a way to not lose the game and especially going down to 10 men as well, when the character would be getting questioned and tested, it would be easy to fold.”
Gray hailed Bushiri’s continued improvement after another brilliant display.
The Hibs boss added: “He’s getting better week by week. He’s doing really well.
“He’s put in a lot of confidence. He’s in a really good place physically, probably the best physical condition he’s been in since he’s been at the club.
“I’ve been very vocal in praise for Rocky for a number of weeks now and rightly so because of the level of performances he’s been putting in.”
St Mirren were awarded a penalty on 73 minutes after referee Ross Hardie adjudged Killian Phillips handled in the box but it was rightly overturned after a VAR review and boss Stephen Robinson had no complaints.
“It was never going to be a penalty,” Robinson admitted. “Mind you, with some of the decisions going against us, there might’ve been a little concern.
“Credit to the ref, that’s what VAR is there for. When people make glaring errors, correct them. It would’ve been a travesty to lose the game to that.
“I felt we were a wee bit fortunate when one of the boys bundled someone over. In the end a point moves us into the top six.
“If we can keep clean sheets, we’ll create chances. We work very very hard, press the life out of teams and don’t sit back.”
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