Jack Ross sacked by Hibernian following defeat to Livingston

Jack Ross has been sacked as Hibernian manager after a defeat that saw the team fall to seventh place in the Premiership table.

The 1-0 defeat to Livingston on Wednesday night meant that Hibs have lost seven of their last ten games and they will now look to a new manager to turn around the team’s form.

The club confirmed David Gray will take charge of the first team as caretaker manager for the “foreseeable future”.

The move also follows the departure of the club’s assistant head coach John Potter.

Hibs chief executive Ben Kensell commented: “Following the prolonged run of poor results in the league, the Club has taken the tough decision to relieve Jack Ross of his duties.

“We thank Jack and John for all their hard work and dedication to the role, the club has moved forward under their leadership, and we will fondly remember some incredible highs like reaching two cup finals and finishing third in the league last season.

“We wish them all the best in their future endeavours. The club will now look to appoint a new manager to take the club and this talented young squad forward and a further update will be provided in due course.”

Hibernian fans had booed and called for Ross to leave during the loss at the Tony Macaroni Arena, with the team missing a penalty and having defenders Paul McGinnn and Paul Hanlon sent off as they crashed to defeat.

After the final whistle, he had accepted the criticism from fans.

“It’s part of the job,” he said. “I have done this for nearly 300 games now. By and large I have had pretty positive times as a manager.

“You know you will get criticised and that criticism grows when you are not producing positive results. We’re not doing that right now.

“There’s times where I would be more defensive if I felt the performance was good because everyone judges it on the end result. But tonight all the criticism I receive will be justified because I am in charge of that team.

“That level of performance was not good enough so the criticism should fall upon me.

“We were not good enough in all aspects of our play.

“That all falls on my shoulders. I own it. It’s my team and the team that was on the park for 60 to 70 minutes is nowhere near good enough to win games in the Premiership.”

Ross, who joined the club in 2019 took the club to third place in last year’s Premiership and to the Scottish Cup final, where they lost to St Johnstone.

This season, he guided the team to the League Cup final, which will be against Celtic on December 19, but the 3-1 semi-final victory over Rangers came amidst a poor run of league results which has seen Hibs slip from the top end of the table into the bottom half.