Josh Campbell admitted he had no idea Hibs were awarded a penalty until he was told he was taking it, after initially fearing Rangers had been given a spot-kick.
Campbell stepped up and scored from 12 yards on 11 minutes after Vanja Dragojevic was adjudged to have fouled Jason Kerr in the Rangers box at a corner. The award came after referee Don Robertson reviewed the incident on the VAR screen, with play having continued down the other end.
Confusion at Ibrox
“Not a clue. I thought we had given a penalty away, if I'm honest with you!” Campbell said. “Then I was told that I was taking it and I was like: Alright, well, it must be our penalty.”
Callum Wright scored the winner in injury-time in Govan, but it was Campbell’s composed first-half finish that laid the platform for David Gray’s team to triumph. The victory marked Hibs’ third successive league win at Ibrox, a first in the club’s history.
Overcoming injury
Campbell revealed he had been struggling with a toe injury and a hamstring problem, making the Ibrox match his first start of the season. “I had a bit of a toe niggle, had a bit of surgery on that and I had a little bit of a hamstring. So, that was my first minutes,” he explained.
He added: “Someone stood on my toe and a bit of an ingrown toenail and it just led to one thing and another and it just got worse and worse. I had repeated surgeries last year to try and fix it, but I had to just get it completely fixed now. Believe it or not, it was actually my own player Rocky [Bushiri] that stood on my toe.”
Fitting winner
Campbell praised Wright, who also had a niggle when he first arrived, saying: “He had a little bit of a niggle as well when he first came in, so we've grew a little relationship together. Lovely lad and he was quality on Thursday night when he came on and he showed that again.”
Reflecting on the match, Campbell said: “Yeah, it was pretty wild, to be honest with you. I think we rode our luck a little bit. Look, we know it's tough when you come to these places. You've got to dig in deep, big tackles from big players, your goalkeeper needs to have a good game, which he did, and then we know, if you put your foot on it, you can play at times and you can counter.”
European ambition
Hibs now defend a 2-1 lead against Shkendija in Macedonia, and Campbell is focused on reaching the group stages. “The aim for this club is to be in European football. We want to get to the group stages because we've never been there before,” he said.
