Nick Montgomery praises Christian Doidge as Hibernian edge past Forfar

Nick Montgomery praised Hibernian striker Christian Doidge after he secured a 1-0 victory over Forfar in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup fourth round.

However, the Hibs boss was not happy with his side’s performance as they grew frustrated at not breaking down the League Two side, with Joe Newell seeing a penalty saved in the first half.

Doidge scored the winner after 69 minutes but also showed his heroics at the other end in the 11th minute, clearing a Matty Allan header off the line when the hosts were on top.

It was the Englishman’s fifth goal of the season and the former Central Coast Mariners coach was quick to praise the contribution of his talisman.

Montgomery said: “I’m really happy for Doidgey to get the goal and to get into the next round because you see some of the other results, these games are difficult and all the pressure is on us.

“Doidge is good in the box, we know that. He’s had a tough season with the eye injury then the groin injury but he’s always a threat in the box. He times his jumps well and that was the perfect Doidgey goal.

“I’m happy to get away with a clean sheet, not a pretty performance. The first half was nowhere near good enough. But the second half we were more than good enough to win.

“I’m glad you weren’t standing outside the dressing room at half-time!

“We made it difficult for ourselves but the boys responded second half and I told them afterwards we have to start better.

“Then we miss a penalty and give them another lift. So I said to the boys at half-time that we needed to be better at defending, stop making silly decisions, giving free-kicks away.

“I thought we were much better in the second half and, apart from the goal, had another couple of chances.”

Forfar Athletic boss Ray McKinnon did not think Newell’s first-half spot-kick merited referee Ross Hardie pointing to the spot.

He said: “It was a great save from the penalty – but it was never a penalty. Justice was done there.

“I’ve not seen it but one of our coaches thought we should have had a penalty as well. Andy Munro had a header and a guy has cleaned him out.”