Hibs head coach Alan Stubbs concedes that his side face an uphill struggle in the battle for the Championship title after Tuesday night’s 3-0 collapse against Morton left them eight points behind leaders Rangers.
The Leith side lost their first league home game in ten months after they had no answer to goals from Thomas O’Ware, Denny Johnstone and Ross Forbes.
And with eleven games remaining in the second tier, Stubbs admits Rangers are firmly in the driving seat.
Asked if the title race was over, Stubbs, whose side have a League Cup final and Scottish Cup quarter-final to look forward to, said: “It might be, it might not be.
“We’ve been eight points behind before and managed to claw it back but with less games to go it does make it harder.
“I’m not going to deny that, it’s a blip for us but I can’t criticise too much. I’ve not been in this position a lot of times this season.
“We’ve still got a lot to play for, this is not a result where our season is completely over.
“We’re still in two cup competitions and we’re still in there with a fighting chance for the league, we’ve just made it a bit harder for ourselves.
“The players are disappointed, it was a quiet changing room afterwards but they need to understand that these things can happen.
“There’s a lot of big games coming up to be too disappointed. It happens to everybody but you dust yourself down and go again.”
Morton boss Jim Duffy, whose side climbed up to fifth, said: “To beat Hibs and to do it so comprehensively says a lot about us.
“Hibs had a couple of great chances in the first 15 minutes but we got away with it. From then on I thought we played really well.
“We defended superbly well and on the counter-attack we were outstanding. The goals were terrific for any level of football.”
