David Gray believes his Hibs side deserved more as they were knocked out by slim margins last night.

Hibs managed to come away with a goalless draw in the first leg in Belgium, but two late goals in the capital ended the European dream for the Easter Road side.

The Hibees went into the game full of confidence, with David Gray describing it as a “cup final.” Hibs fell behind not long before the break, as Vergara put the visitors ahead. Hibs came out looking like a whole new side, as the Hibees scored twice through Kerr and Passlack to lead in the tie, but two late goals by Burgess and a Chaiwa own goal, moments before the midfielder saw red, sealed the pain for the Edinburgh side.

“It’s really hard to put it into words, in terms of the feeling in the group,” said Gray.

“It hurts, it’s going to sting. It’s hard to be critical of the players over the effort they’ve put in. I think over the two legs we deserved to go through.

“It’s tough to take because I don’t think we got what we deserved for our second-half performance.

“The second half was exactly what was required because we were behind in the tie – we had energy, belief and the desire.

“The tie was decided in two massive moments at the end of the game, we lost a goal from a set-piece then went up the other end and had the best chance of the game (for Callum Wright) to win it 3-2.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been done by extremely fine margins. Across the two legs I thought we were worthy of going through.

“People don’t want to hear me talk about positives right now but I think in time we’ll see there were.

“Physically, we looked good; we didn’t just sit in and defend. I think we demonstrated what we can do tonight, against a team who play in Europe regularly.

“If we were outclassed, outplayed or outfought or there was a gulf between the teams I’d say that, but I didn’t feel that was the case.”

David Gray wasn’t prepared to criticize Chaiwa despite an own-goal and a late sending off.

“Miguel covered every blade of grass but in the last minute in his recovery he put it into his own net,” David Gray stated.

“It’s my job, the staff’s job to get around the players. The big thing in these moments is we stick together, the big characters need to pick the other ones up. That’s also my job and my staff’s job.”