HIBS boss Alan Stubbs blamed the Cappielow playing surface for stifling his side as they drew 0-0 with Morton on Saturday.

Award-winning groundsman Mark Farrell has come in for praise from all quarters this term, including SPFL referees.

Just this month the Englishman’s pitch was awarded platinum status and named amongst the top four in the country alongside East Fife, Hearts and Queen’s Park based on the opinion of match officials.

However, a frustrated Stubbs picked out the ‘lively’ surface for criticism after his team’s hopes of finishing second were dented by a goalless draw against the Ton.

He said: “I think everybody thinks the likes of ourselves and Rangers and other teams just have to turn up and we’ll win a game.

“You know, the players have had a lot of games [and] the pitch wasn’t great. It was really lively and I thought it made a few of them a little bit reluctant on it.

“Rather than know what they were doing, they were concentrating on the bobble and first touches, whereas normally it would be a straightforward reaction to get it and play it.

“That probably affected us more, because Morton are a ... they’ve done really well this season, they’re well organised but they like to get the ball forward and play off second balls, which will help them.”

The 44-year-old former Bolton, Celtic and Everton defender was also unimpressed by the performance of the officials.

In particular, Stubbs expressed doubt over the decision to disallow a Jason Cummings ‘goal’ for offside.

He added: “I think it was one of those days where we weren’t going to get anything off people; we were going to have to make our own luck.

“I’ve seen it [a replay of Cummings’ offside ‘goal’] — and it’s very close. Very close. And I think it’s a huge call.”

Hibs came into the match looking to put pressure on Falkirk in their bid to overhaul them in second place.

Stubbs said: “We’ve said all along, we’ll take whatever it takes. Ideally — I’m not going to lie about it — we wanted to do four. Well, we didn’t want to do any initially.

“But now we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. It could be a good point.

“The good things for us today were the clean sheet [but] we didn’t create enough. It was a game of not a lot of chances either to be honest.

“I can’t say that a draw wasn’t a fair result for either team - but our important games are coming up after May 1 now.”