BROWN BOOST FOR MOWBRAY

By Ronnie Esplin, PA Sport

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Hibernian manager Tony Mowbray has welcomed back the player he believes typifies the very essence of his team.

Midfielder Scott Brown returned after almost three months out with a broken leg in the second half of the 2-1 win over Hearts at Easter Road.

The Scotland international last played in the Tennent's Scottish Cup third-round win over Rangers at Ibrox on February 4.

But the Hibs boss was simply delighted to see the 20-year-old back on the field.

Mowbray said: "I don't think I've ever worked with a more enthusiastic player than Scott.

"He played only 20 minutes of a reserve game during the week, has trained maybe three days in total after three months out and there he was, running around like a spring chicken.

"That's credit to Scott's personality and the character he has.

"His drive, passion and determination and abundance of talent is hopefully what epitomises our football club.

"Sometimes, his enthusiasm can put him into a few tight situation with officials, but, hopefully, we can get him to play on the right side of the line."

One other player Mowbray may have to monitor in terms of discipline is striker Ivan Sproule who again tempted a red card.

The Irishman was replaced by Abdessalam Benjelloun on the hour immediately after a reckless challenge on Christophe Berra inside the Hearts penalty area.

Sproule was sent off against the Tynecastle side in the Tennent's Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park three weeks ago.

Mowbray tried to play the incident down saying: "I'm not sure why he got a yellow card, I didn't see the incident.

"But I knew it would have been difficult for Ivan to focus because he knew the booking would take him over the points limit again.

"His season may be finished now with a two or three-game ban.

"It's never an easy decision to make. With all substitutions you have to think about how the game is going.

"But Ivan had just picked up a booking and psychologically that might have been playing on his mind a little bit."

Derek Riordan fired the home side into the lead after in the 16th minute but that advantage was cancelled out seconds before half time by Jambos striker Roman Bednar.

However, with 12 minutes remaining, Benjelloun drove home his first goal for the Easter Road club from 16 yards to give Mowbray's side three vital points.

The Hibs boss stressed the problems he has had maintaining a settled side this season.

Mowbray said: "It was a game for getting some pride back and the players did that.

"Every football club is about how strong your bench is as well as the team that's playing and that's where we've suffered over the last few weeks.

"We've had a number of injuries but we're starting to get a few back.

"When we beat Hearts earlier in the season we had Brown, Kevin Thomson, Guillaume Beuzelin and Michael Stewart in the midfield.

"Not one of them started this time, yet we still had enough to win."

Hearts interim head coach Valdas Ivanauskas will now be hoping Hibernian will do his team a favour.

The Easter Road side put a dent in the Jambos' Champions League hopes but will play host to third-placed Rangers on May 2.

Ivanauskas said: "They are a good, young team and I say congratulations to Hibs."

Taken from sportinglife.com