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Paul Heckingbottom admits he has been left frustrated by Hibernian’s six-day wait to rectify their Ibrox humiliation.
The Easter Road boss saw his side humbled 6-1 by Steven Gerrard’s rampant Rangers last Sunday.
The former Leeds and Barnsley boss is used to the hectic Wednesday-Saturday schedule in the English Championship and confessed his anguish was made worse as his side do not return to action until Saturday’s Betfred Cup last 16 showdown at home to Morton.
Heckingbottom put himself through the horror performance all over again as he reviewed the 90 minutes earlier this week and insists he has not changed his post-match view that individual errors were to blame for the calamitous final 16 minutes that saw Rangers run riot with four goals.
“One of the things that is difficult to get used to is how spaced out the games are,” said the Leith manager. “I’d have loved to have had another game on Wednesday and get on with it.
“I didn’t see the result or the performance coming. You know it’s going to be tough and that you’ll have to be at your best to compete, especially when Rangers play that well. They were excellent.
“But I’m not bothered about them. I just want us to give our best and compete.
“If we give our best and lose, fair enough. But that wasn’t our best.
“The good thing about football is there is always another game.
“We want to see a good response.
“But even forgetting Sunday’s game, we want to win this weekend’s in its own right anyway. It’s the last 16 of the cup so that takes care of itself.
“But we need to make sure we don’t lose such poor goals again.
“Morton will be a difficult game. They’ve had some strong results and caught people out. They will see this as an opportunity.
“We have to make sure we dominate the game and impose ourselves on them.”
Rangers loanee Glenn Middleton could make his Hibs debut against David Hopkin’s Greenock side and Heckingbottom believes he has found a like-for-like replacement for injured wideman Martin Boyle.
“We’ve lost the pace that Boyle has got and the impact that gives you, but I think we’ve found that again in Glenn,” said Heckingbottom.
“We wanted to replace the loss of pace with some pace and Glenn has got that.
“As a lad, he’s hungry. We expect him to work really hard for us and we’ll work really hard for him and hopefully we get the benefit.”
Sean Mackie is available for Hibs despite his Ibrox red card while Lewis Stevenson returns from injury. Stevie Mallan is suspended.
