The 20-year-old, who was signed from Sligo Rovers, struck after just 15 seconds as the Hibees defeated Kilmarnock 3-0 at Easter Road to close the gap on fourth-placed Motherwell to three points in the battle for guaranteed European football next season.<\/p>\n
Elding also produced a magnificent pass in the build-up to his side\u2019s second goal, scored by Felix Passlack, before sub Ante Suto sealed victory in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Owen\u2019s growing in confidence all the time,\u201d said manager Gray. \u201cFor such a young player, he\u2019s adapted really quickly to men\u2019s football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s been playing men\u2019s football over in Ireland, which is a difficult level as well, but the step up, I think he\u2019s adapted really well to the intensity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a really mature player for his age. His technical ability speaks for itself and there\u2019s a lot more to come from him as well, which is really pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right wing-back Passlack, who joined from Bochum in January, also chipped in with a goal and an assist, and Gray is delighted with the attacking threat the former Borussia Dortmund player brings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something he\u2019s done since he joined the club,\u201d he said. \u201cHe scored in at the back post at Celtic Park, and the next week he had a chance in at the back post as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis goal was wing-back to wing-back, Jordan Obita squaring it across. When you play with wing-backs, they really need to be that outlet. You need to switch the play and use them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Felix has been a brilliant addition, not only for his goals and assists, but just how he is every day around the building. He\u2019s played at a high level and is culturally very good, with his level of professionalism, setting standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray expects to have Nicky Cadden back for Saturday\u2019s trip to Aberdeen after a minor injury while Rocky Bushiri will also return to contention at Pittodrie after missing the Killie game in the wake of DR Congo\u2019s qualification for the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Killie boss Neil McCann was disappointed his side failed to land a blow on Hibs after arriving in Edinburgh buoyed by back-to-back home wins. The Ayrshire side remain in the relegation play-off spot, three points behind both St Mirren and Aberdeen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will not derail us with what we\u2019re trying to do here,\u201d said McCann. \u201cIt\u2019s just another sore one and we just need to accept it, see where we\u2019ve gone wrong and then work on it next week towards the Dundee game.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur home form has been brilliant, really strong. We had a sell-out number (of supporters) that followed us through, and I\u2019m so disappointed for them because they came with optimism. We have let them down, and we\u2019ll look to try to make that up next Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 20-year-old, who was signed from Sligo Rovers, struck after just 15 seconds as the Hibees defeated Kilmarnock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":["post-383440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}