Even Barcelona couldn’t score 7 against us - Stevenson

by ALAN PATTULLO

LEWIS Stevenson summed up the scale of the defeat that he had just endured when pointing out that Hibernian had at least managed to restrict Barcelona to just half a dozen goals.

On Thursday night, however, a somewhat less celebrated team from Sweden arrived to hand Stevenson and his shell-shocked teammates the hammering of their lives. Malmo completed the job of securing a third qualifying round Euro League appointment with Swansea in frighteningly efficient fashion, scoring seven times without reply at Easter Road. Not even Barcelona were able to do this when they met Hibs in a friendly at Murrayfield in 2008.

“I have played in a lot of games where we have been well and truly beaten and not been the better team, but that was a different level against Malmo,” reflected Stevenson. “They are a good team but, no matter how good they are, we should not be getting beaten 7-0. I think it was only 6-0 when we played Barcelona.”

Stevenson was withering about Hibs’ performance. As one of the few survivors of the 5-1 reversal against Hearts in the Scottish Cup final, he had hoped he would not have to endure such a chastening experience again. “The cup final was low and this is a major low as well,” he said. “We are not in Europe very often and everyone was looking forward to the experience.

“There are not many players left from the Hearts game who played against Malmo, but you could have put any team out there – a part-time team – and they would have put up a better performance.

He denied that Hibs are finding it difficult to play in big occasions, though the evidence is mounting after two successive poor performances in the Scottish Cup final, and then Thursday’s night embarrassing struggle in front of 16,000 home fans. Stevenson revealed that manager Pat Fenlon was most exercised by Hibs’ inability to bounce back after losing the first goal.

“The first ten minutes were decent enough, but then we collapsed after losing one goal,” he said. It happened a few times last season, but not on that scale. It’s something that has to be cut out totally.”

“Even though we had a fair bit of the ball, it was just far too easy for them to score goals,” he continued. “We lacked composure and they seemed to have so much of it. Even in and around the box, we were diving in and making it too easy. It was men against boys.”

Stevenson had an especially uncomfortable night of it playing out of position at right back, but he bravely fronted up afterwards. He admitted he had worried that it might have been even worse. “We knew we were out of the tie but we tried to start the second half as positively as we could,” he said. “Our aim was to try and ‘win’ the half and make it a bit respectable. It didn’t happen. It was far too easy for them.”

Although not quite a new-look Hibs, fans hoped new signings in Liam Craig and Rowan Vine might bring a degree of freshness. However, Hibs rarely looked like scoring, never mind pulling back a two-goal first-leg deficit. The loss of four goals between the 20th minute and half-time set them on their way to a record Easter Road and European defeat. It also stands as the largest aggregate defeat in Scottish football history in Europe.

“I try not to look at these things [statistics] at the best of times, but when you are part of something like this then it is not nice,” Stevenson said. “I am sure it will come up in history for years to come. No-one wanted to look at anyone afterwards,” he conceded.

“Everyone had their head down. It’s a weird feeling. It seemed easy for them and we did not have any answers.”

The players are due to be given the ultimate punishment – by being made to sit through a recording of the match. “That will be harder than playing in it,” said Stevenson, gloomily.

All Hibs can then do is look towards next Sunday’s league opener against Motherwell, and hope that they can earn some redemption for themselves. “We have a massive game next week and we need to make the most of it,” he said. “We had a big crowd against Malmo and they had to watch their team get beaten by that scoreline. It’s Most of the fans kept with us and you can’t ask any more than that.”

The supporters, however, could ask for a lot more of the players, Stevenson admitted. Having been at the club for more than ten years, the 25-year-old feels the hurt as much as the fans. “Letting them down is what made the pain worse,” he said.

Taken from the Scotsman