26.05.2014 02:00 h

Football: Butcher takes blame for Hibs relegation

Terry Butcher says he takes full responsibility for Hibernian's shock relegation from the Scottish Premiership following his side's play-off final defeat to Hamilton.

Butcher watched as Hibs were condemned to life in the Championship in dramatic fashion following a 4-3 penalty shootout defeat at Easter Road on Sunday.

Hibernian took a commanding two-goal lead into the second leg, but with just four victories at Easter Road this season the home side showed nerves from the start as Hamilton dominated possession.

Jason Scotland's first half strike and a Tony Andreu goal in stoppage-time levelled the tie at 2-2 on aggregate, before Hamilton goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert produced heroics in the penalty shoot-out as he saved spot-kicks from Kevin Thomson and Jason Cummings to send his team into the top-flight.

Butcher only took over as Hibs manager in November following the departure of Pat Fenlon, with the Edinburgh side sitting in seventh place.

After a good start to life at Easter Road, which saw his side defeated just twice in his opening 10 games, Butcher's men had a terrible slump in form and would have finished the season bottom of the table if it hadn't been for rivals Hearts 15-point deduction for entering administration.

Former England defender Butcher insists he wants to stay on at Hibs but concedes the decision may be out of his hands following the worst experience of his long career.

"It's my darkest day in football, absolutely. I'm extremely angry but I take full responsibility as we have had plenty of time to put this right and we haven't done it so it's down to me," he said.

"It's not nice when you take a team down and it's not nice being responsible for it.

"At this moment in time I'm manager of Hibernian Football Club but we'll have to see.

"I want to stay here obviously because if you take a club down you want to help bring them back up again straight away.

"I did that before at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. We rebuilt the team and came back up at the first attempt and that's what we will have to do but whether that's with me in charge we'll have to wait and see.

"Whether I continue in the job isn't up to me now it's up to other people and we'll see what they say."

Defeat ends Hibs' 15-year stay in the top flight and they will now have to battle it out with fellow relegated city rivals Hearts and Glasgow giants Rangers in next season's Championship.

Butcher's side had a collapse in the second half of the season, winning just twice in their last 21 matches, and the former Rangers star admitted his side deserved to go down.

"I have been relegated before as a manager and a player and it's horrible. It was just like watching a car crash today to be honest," Butcher said.

"It has been like that for the past few months. It's not just about today, it's about the previous games and we haven't done enough to get ourselves out of trouble let alone the top six, which we were talking about a couple of months ago.

"Now we find ourselves relegated and I must give full credit to Hamilton.

"For some reason we sat off them and allowed them to play and they certainly can play. We had it there with a minute to go and then we conceded a goal.

"I felt when it went to penalties we had a chance but when you miss the first one you are always up against it.

"When you get relegated you deserve to get relegated and it's over the whole piece and whole season, not just the last game."