James Forrest scored the opening goal as Premiership champions Celtic knocked Hibernian out of the Scottish Cup at the quarter-final stage.
Paul Heckingbottom has suggested there was nothing his Hibernian side could do to stop James Forrest’s opening goal in Saturday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat to Celtic, speaking to Hibs TV.
The Edinburgh outfit held their own against the Premiership champions at Easter Road with a place in the last four up for grabs. That was until Forrest fired home a brilliant opener on the hour, the winger drilling home a fabulous strike from range.
Celtic dominated from then on and sealed the win through Scott Brown’s finish with 15 minutes remaining.
And, speaking after the game, Heckingbottom has pointed out that players of Forrest’s quality tend to make the difference in hard-fought encounters.
“Good finish (from Forrest). They’re loaded with quality at the top end of the pitch. It took that good feet, really clean strike from outside the box and you can’t save them,” Heckingbottom said.
“When you go behind its even more difficult. We didn’t look like scoring after they scored. If we’d have got the first goal it couldn’t been a different story but we didn’t have the quality to open them up.
“We came up against the better side.”
Forrest is enjoying the best season of his career. He scored his 15th goal of a stunning campaign away at Hibs while a tally of 18 assists is also hugely impressive.
After so many years as an impact player, a gifted yet frustrating winger, Forrest is now arguably the most lethal attacker anywhere in Scotland. Brendan Rodgers is far from the most popular man in Glasgow right now but he deserves a huge amount of credit for Forrest’s rapid rise.
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