Simon Brown had no place to hide on Sunday but at least he had his coach sticking up for him.
Hibs' goalkeeping coach Gordon Marshall is feeling sorry that one of his charges suffered a nightmare on Sunday and insists Simon Brown can recover from his mistakes against Rangers. The goalkeeper was found guilty for both of midfielder Charlie Adam's free-kicks in the 2-0 defeat at Easter Road. Brown was caught out of position for Adam's opener early in the match then after the break he allowed another set-piece to slip from his grasp and trickle over the line. Marshall insists every goalkeeper has made similar mistakes and believes it is how you react to them which is most important. He said: "I've made the same mistake before. Simon was down after the game and apologised for the rest of the team. He came into training and worked very hard, he reacted in a positive way. Simon's a good goalkeeper, he just needs to get his confidence back. He'll feel as though everyone is talking about him and pointing the finger but that's not true. I would expect him to be more positive than anything else. I have to wait and see his reaction and then I can work on it. I felt for him during the game as I know what it's like when something like that happens, you just want the ground to open up. But he'll be fine. I didn't think there was any problem with his starting position but we'll sit down and talk about it tomorrow and we'll analyse things."
Hibs manager John Collins will be on the look out for a new number one when the transfer window reopens in the summer after allowing Ally Brown to move to Ayr United on a temporary basis and Zbigniew Malkowski to Gretna until the end of the season. Marshall does not see this as a knee jerk reaction and insists his boss would not be doing his job if that were not the case. He said: "The manager looks for quality players all the time. We have six goalkeepers at the club and the manager is always looking. Will a goalkeeper coming in improve the squad, will he fit into the wage structure? Now I'm on the other side of the fence I appreciate all the other things." But Marshall is confident Hibs have a star in the future in Scotland Under-21 goalkeeper Andrew McNeil, who has shone in his run-outs in the side this season. He said: "Andrew has a big future, he's played around 10 games and done well. He works hard at his game, he is very level-headed and he has a great future."
