Joe Newell insists Hibs were right to stick to their guns at Celtic Park as midfielder dismisses rivals' defensive tactics

The Hibees might have gone down to the champions but they did it on their terms as they refused to camp in like other sides

Joe Newell insists Hibs have no regrets taking the game to Celtic – even if the plan backfired at Parkhead.

The Easter Road men stuck to their passing game against the champions but eventually came a cropper as they went down 4-1 to Celtic. But Newell insisted the defeat won’t derail the optimism around the club under Nick Montgomery – and they are not prepared to camp in and hope for the best against the Old Firm. Some Premiership sides have managed to frustrate the Hoops by sitting deep, with Motherwell and St Johnstone picking up points at Parkhead.

But it’s not the Hibs way and Newell wants to continue the feel-good factor despite defeat. He said: “We’ve been brilliant lately. There’s no doom or gloom, it’s not a big disaster or anything. It is a night we will look back on and analyse where we went wrong and what we can learn from.

“But we are in a good place. We have got a massive game on Saturday and we have got huge fixtures coming up before the break that we are going to try and stamp our authority on.

“We are at a football club where every game is huge. We went to Parkhead fully expecting to be competitive and try and win the game.

"We didn’t go there to roll over, we never would do. Every fixture for us is huge if we want to be where we want to be at the end of the season.

“The games before Christmas and the derby after Christmas are real opportunities for us. We will learn from last night, look at where we went wrong and take the positives. There was some good stuff as well. Then we will go again.”

Newell insisted Hibs will stick to their approach – no matter what. He said: “Definitely. There are different ways to play football obviously. Teams will go to Parkhead and sit behind the ball. Motherwell did that the other week and got a draw and fair play to them.

“But we are not going to do that. Since the gaffer has come in he has been very clear on how he wants us to play and we are all together as a club going forward. The fans are starting to come on board to it now. I think they are appreciating it.

“There will be lessons from last night, but it is about staying with our philosophy and our beliefs. Hopefully further down the line we will go to Parkhead, play the same way and get results.”

Hibs didn’t lose any ground on third place rivals with Hearts and St Mirren also going down in midweek. Monty’s men face struggling Livi on Saturday and Newell is up for the fight for Europe.

He said: “The manager has only been here two or three months, not that long really. We haven’t had a pre-season with him, there has been a lot of games. It will take time, it will not happen overnight.

"But I think the change you have seen already has been quite drastic. I have felt it personally playing in it.

“Not many teams will go to Parkhead and try and play like we did. We obviously lost, but we won’t go away from what we are doing and the manager won’t want us to do that. It’s good. When it comes off, it is really good to watch.

“For me personally I prefer it to your old school lump it up the pitch style. It is a work in progress, but we will carry on and won’t change from it. With the size of the club we play for and represent you can’t afford to do that.

“Even if we were sitting in 10th we would still be focusing on European football. Now we have picked up after a bad start to the season, it is full steam ahead really.”

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