Hibs boss Colin Calderwood heartened by goal threat

Calderwood was not too downbeat despite the 1-0 defeat

Colin Calderwood hopes his team's defending and the threat his side posed Rangers in their 1-0 Ibrox defeat gives Hibs confidence in the coming weeks.

Goalkeeper Graham Stack helped to keep the score goalless at half-time before Rangers' pressure paid off, thanks to Kyle Lafferty's 68th-minute goal.

"We have to play from that solid defensive foundation and have that threat," Calderwood told BBC Scotland.

"It's a good starting point from where we can get better as a team."

The defeat was Hibernian's first in six matches, with a penalty shoot-out victory over Motherwell in the Scottish Communities League Cup sandwiched between draws against Aberdeen, Dunfermline and Dundee United and a midweek win over St Johnstone.

Calderwood said of the narrow loss: "I don't think it will hurt us too much.

"The threat was there and we have to have that sustained threat throughout the game wherever we play.

"I was quite pleased with what we did. Off the ball, we should have been better.

"Eventually we did enough with the ball to think we could handle the situation and I think we grew in confidence because of that.

"But we were really angry with ourselves for conceding the penalty before half-time."

Former Hibee Steven Whittaker did his old club a favour by blazing a spot-kick over the crossbar in the last action of the first half.

Steven Davis, Gregg Wylde and Nikica Jelavic threatened Stack's goal throughout the game, but the traffic was not one way.

Hibs defender Paul Hanlon ought to have headed the visitors in front early in the second half and Junior Agogo came out second best in a one-on-one opportunity with Rangers keeper Allan McGregor.

Calderwood, though, felt he could not argue with the final score.

"In the end they deserved it because of the quality of the service that they put in," he added.

"The quality of the service was always going to be a constant threat.

"On the back of sustained pressure they wore us down and got the goal that looked like it might come in the first half.

"They had three one-on-ones and we had Junior through, so in essence they had the balance of chances, and they missed the penalty as well."