JAKE DOYLE-HAYES had to wait a while to register his first goals for Hibernian but they could have hardly arrived at a more opportune time.
With Shaun Maloney’s men being held to a goalless draw by Ross County at Easter Road, it was the former St Mirren midfielder who broke the deadlock in the second half to notch his first goal for the Leith club in over 30 appearances.
The ball fell nicely for the Irishman as his powerful drive flew into the back of the net despite County keeper Ross Laidlaw getting a good hand to it. Around 10 minutes later, Doyle-Hayes would get his second of the afternoon as he chested the ball and thumped it into the top corner from 30 yards in one fluid movement to seal the win for Hibs.
Doyle-Hayes’ interventions lifted his side to fourth in the table, broke the deadlock in what was a cagey encounter until that point and with Hearts losing to St Johnstone, cut the gap with his team’s rivals to nine points.
It was a coming-of-age afternoon’s work for the 23-year-old Irishman, who was not shy of support at Easter Road on Saturday.
“I genuinely don’t know where the goals came from,” Doyle-Hayes admitted. “I know I need to shoot more and I have had opportunities in the past and I have tried to play in other people in better positions. Sometimes I need to let it go and have a pop.
“After the first one every time I touched the ball the crowd were shouting for me to shoot - even when I was on the halfway line. That’s why I thought I would have a go with the second one and it wasn’t a bad finish. Thankfully it came off and it went into the back of the net.
“I had my fiancee in the stand and 27 boys from Ireland over for the game. So it was good to score in front of all of them. They weren’t over for a specific reason, they had some time off so they all wanted to come over and see me.”
Doyle-Hayes’ brace arrived in timely fashion and he insists he and his team-mates haven’t given up hope of pipping Hearts to third place just yet. Hibs host league leaders Celtic in their next fixture and wile Doyle-Hayes reckons a victory will be a big ask, he believes the team are capable of building on Saturday’s victory.
He added: “Can we close the gap on Hearts? We believe we can.
“Before the game on Saturday we weren’t sitting in a great place in the table and as players we all knew that. We believe in what the gaffer wants us to do and we are taking everything on board. We know we are a talented squad and we can push on.
“It’s a massive game next Sunday but we will get confidence from the Ross County game and we want to build on that. Celtic are a quality team with top players, so we know we need to stand up and fight for everything.
“We have to stand up and earn the right to play our football and we know we can do it.”
County striker Jordan White, meanwhile, was disappointed to leave Easter Road empty-handed, particularly as he believed that Doyle-Hayes’ opening goal shouldn’t have stood.
Harry Paton rushed out to close down the Hibs midfielder but fell down following a coming-together with Hibernian’s Rocky Bushiri as Doyle-Hayes slammed the ball home.
The manner of the defeat hurts, White concedes, but the forward believes he and his team-mates can take heart from their performance.
“I think for their first goal there was a foul in the lead up to it,” he explained. “I didn’t see it myself but some of the boys were saying that it shouldn’t have counted as they thought it was a foul on Harry Paton.
“It’s frustrating when that happens as we were still in the game at that point. The second one is a worldie from the boy but we shouldn't have let him be unmarked at the edge of our box. He has put it in the top corner and sometimes you have to take your hat off to him.
“It probably shows how far we have come this season to come away from Easter Road disappointed.
“We always believed we could go there and win the game. After the first half we felt we should have come away with three points. To be so disappointed shows the mentality we have in this group of players. But we have to pick ourselves up and go again now.”
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