Pat Fenlon hails victory over Aberdeen as bigger than Hampden triumph

Pat Fenlon was delighted with his players' character against Aberdeen© SNS Group

Pat Fenlon claims his side's victory over Aberdeen was more important than their Scottish Cup semi-final triumph over the Pittodrie side.

The Easter Road men held on for a 2-1 win over the Dons to move five points above bottom side Dunfermline following the Pars' goalless draw against Inverness.

A Mark Reynolds own goal and a header by Sean O'Hanlon gave Hibs an early two-goal lead with only 17 minutes gone but Scott Vernon pulled one back for the Dons eight minutes after the restart to ensure a nervy finish.

Afterward seeing his side hold on, Fenlon claimed he took more satisfaction from the hard-fought victory that will ease their relegation fears than his side's 2-1 win over the Dons at Hampden last month.

He said: "The semi-finals are great to win and we enjoyed it but this is a bigger win for us than the semi final.

"It's a great three points and it has given us a bit more of a lead but we have a massive game coming up against Dunfermline on Monday.

"We are not getting carried away as we still have to get over the finishing line."

Fenlon was particularly pleased with the character shown by his players and felt they were worthy of their victory against a Dons side which improved after a poor first half.

He added: "It is always nervy when you are leading 2-1 but I thought we did enough to win the game. We could have killed the game off as we had a few good chances but we made it edgy for ourselves in the end.

"I have been happy with the last three performances and I thought tonight we added a little bit more to that. We created chances and defended really well when we were under the cosh. There were some great individual performances out there from players."

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