JACK FITZWATER reckons his equaliser in Saturday’s 3-2 win at Easter Road has been a long time coming as the centre-half hailed a superb win for his side.
Livingston travelled to the capital looking to take advantage of a Hibs side that have been guilty of being a tad toothless on occasion under Shaun Maloney, and twice found themselves trailing in the capital.
Demetri Mitchell marked his first start for the club with a goal seven minutes into the entertaining contest in Leith before Ayo Obileye capitalised on some slack goalkeeping from Matt Macey 15 minutes later to restore parity.
A Chris Cadden cross that sailed all the way into the back of Max Stryjek’s net put the home side back in front before a change in shape from the Lions – matching up Hibs’ 3-4-1-2 formation – turned the tide in their favour.
A long throw from Livi wasn’t dealt with by the hosts’ defence and Fitzwater was at hand to steer the ball home – and Alan Forrest’s sublime finish following a devastating counter-attack wrapped up the three points for Davie Martindale’s men.
Fitzwater’s header, arriving within minutes of the second half, provided the perfect platform for his side to build their turnaround upon. And the 24-year-old – who has reportedly been catching the eye of Premier League pair Newcastle and Burnley ahead of tonight’s transfer deadline – reckons he and his team-mates got exactly what they deserved.
“It was an absolutely massive win,” he beamed. “We went in at half-time disappointed because we were 2-1 down. We knew that we’d had more than enough of the game and we’d created chances as well.
“After the break you could see our spirit and our fight and that’s what we were all about. We put them under pressure and showed our quality up front. It’s a huge three points, especially with Ross County getting a draw against Rangers before we kicked off.
“I think Hibs are going through a transition just now, making more passes, and we struggled a bit with their shape at times in the first half. But once we’d got in at the break and tweaked things a little we were literally all over them and big Max in goal made a couple of decent saves as well so I’m buzzing for him.
“There wasn’t too much said at half-time – it was just little tactical changes, really. It was all about putting more pressure on the ball because a few of us had been standing there doing nothing in good positions.
“It was important to get our forward players on the ball, we did that and we were pretty dominant in the second half and we should’ve beaten them by a bigger margin.
“I was due a goal because I’ve been hitting the target with headers all season but they hadn’t been going in. Last Wednesday at Ibrox I had one cleared off the line.
“We thoroughly deserved a point that night. My header was stopped by a handball and, on a different day, that would have been a penalty and a red card but we got over that to produce this performance.
“We’re looking upwards and not over our shoulders because - if you do that you’ll stumble – so if we can keep making the gap between the bottom two and ourselves bigger I can’t see why we shouldn’t finish higher up the table.”
There is every chance that Fitzwater will no longer be a Livingston player when his side host St Johnstone on league duty tomorrow night, if reports linking the defender with a move down south are to be believed.
The man himself says he has had no contact with other clubs but admitted to being flattered by the apparent interest.
“I just let my football do the talking and don’t get involved in all that stuff,” he added.” It’s nice to see my name in the papers but I’m concentrating on Livingston and I’ll see where that takes me.
“Because of our schedule it’s just been football, football, football and I’m unaware of anything else that’s been going on.
“I don’t worry too much about things off the pitch anyway – I just try and do the best that I can in every game. Playing week in week out and enjoying my football in a team with a great spirit is good enough.”
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