Inside Hibs' devastated dressing room as squad plots way to make sure pain doesn't linger

As well as Hibs did in competing with an accomplished and seasoned European opponent before succumbing to a Junior Brumado bicycle kick in the last minute of extra time in their Europa League qualifier, it is back to the bread and butter for David Gray’s men. The domestic season kicks off on Sunday for the Hibees with a trip to Dens Park to face Dundee.

Hibs finished third in the Premiership last season, which permitted them to enjoy a night like Thursday against Midtjylland. While Hibs were defeated 3-2 on aggregate by the Danes, they remain in Europe and have a Conference League third qualifying round match against Partizan Belgrade to navigate next week. The matches come thick and fast.

For Hibs’ Irish defender Warren O’Hora, the past two weeks have been a huge learning curve. The 25-year-old is experiencing European football for the first time in his career and wants more. Performing well in the league opens the door to that once more.

“Devastated is probably the word for it,” O’Hora said to sum up the feeling in the Hibs dressing-room after Thursday night. “We gave it our all over two legs. The goals that they scored over two legs are of very, very high quality. A free-kick, a 20-yard strike and an overhead kick, which is very, very hard to take.

“Did they cut us open much? Did they have chances? Not as much. It didn't really feel like it on the pitch. I felt like we had chances as well, but to lose a game with two goals like that tonight is a very hard one to take.”

From Dens Park to the Balkans

Belgrade may be looming but O’Hora is looking closer to home first. “That's next week,” he said. “The league starts on Sunday, we regroup right now. We can come out of this game with two legs with our heads held high. We went toe-to-toe 200 odd minutes with a team at a very, very high level. I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of.

“We have a lot of positives to take into Sunday. It's definitely going to be a tough game. It's the first game of the season, we want to start well. We have no time to let our heads hang. We'll come in, we'll recover, and we'll go through everything.

“We'll definitely look at things we could have done better. I'm not saying we'll just go away from the game, but we'll definitely look at things where we can improve, because that's what we've been doing through the whole start.

“Since I've come to the club, that's the way it works. After every performance, we look at what we can do better, what we did well. But like I said, we can't let it linger. The changing room we have, us boys won't let anybody feel sorry for themselves or anything like that, because it's in the past now, we can't control it.

“We still have another opportunity next week [in Europe], but at the end of this season, you want to be able to do something here in Europe again. That is obviously a goal that we'll set, no doubt about it. But we need to start taking it game by game, and we'll start this Sunday.”

Hibs started last season poorly, losing 3-0 to St Mirren. It set the tone for a miserable first three months of the league campaign in which they won just one match before turning things around spectacularly from December onwards and finishing third. There is no doubt the squad that Gray has assembled has character.

Hibs did not feel overawed

O’Hora listed the attributes that were on show against Midtjylland. “Discipline, work-rate,” he said. “I think we always knew that we'd probably have to give up some possession, that we'll get into areas. I think we worked our socks off. I thought we started at both legs really, really well. We got a disallowed goal today as well, and the first leg started really well.

“We can play against that level, we believed. We knew for ourselves, we believed that we can get something from this game, and we did, we brought a draw back to Easter Road, which is exactly what we needed. Obviously you want to win, but you want to bring something back, you don't want to lose the tie. I think today's performance showed that we can play against opposition at this level.”

There was a special moment against the Danes in extra time when Rocky Bushiri levelled. Easter Road celebrated wildly. It ultimately didn’t give Hibs what they wanted - but it was a goal to relish. O’Hora wants more of that.

“That's why you play football, isn't it?” he added. “It's for moments like that. It's so nice. Rocky scored so many important goals for us last year, and he's just scored another one for us this year. That's a credit to him. He's a real goal threat in the box.

“You can see the reaction from the fans, singing his name. You see everybody celebrating, the whole bench celebrates. There's boys that didn't play, didn't start, didn't come on, whatever.

“But it's all forgotten about, that's how together this group has been since we've first come in. And we showed that today, and we're going to need that tenfold for the whole season, which no doubt we will.”

Starting at Dens Park, where a win would be the best way to get a sore European defeat properly out of the system.