The Hibs team was

John Leslie 6

John Stevenson 6 Leon Ashford 5.5 Andy Hardy 6 Grant Ramsey 5.5


Jason Steer 7.5 Adam Pomoro 6.5 Jim McPherson 7 Lee Steer 6.5

Gerry 6 Luke Pomoro 5

Substitutes

Paul Dublin (Luke Pomoro) 5
Simon Spence ( Lee Steer) 5
Kevin Robertson (not used, referee)
Neil (John Stevenson) 6.5

The game started off well enough. Gerry got on the end of a good through ball, created a little space and launched a 25-yard lob over their average goalkeeper. We then followed this up with an absolutely great header from a deep thrown in from Lee to brother Jason Steer, 2-0 in 20 minutes.
Then, we took our foot of the pedal and had Rangers stretch us this way and that. Our lack of fitness and familiarity with each other began to show and they eventually got a goal back when their left winger had acres (Lee and John S take note) to cross the ball to right into a scramble of bodies
resulting in a scrappy goal.

Half Time : 1-2

Second half, we seemed to start with more purpose, coming close on a couple of occasions, then we sat back and let them come at us. They had a valid penalty claim disallowed by the Ref (me), this merely reflected the pressure they were exerting on our goal. The Rangers second goal came down the right side this time, with Jason and Grant getting turned inside out. The ball was switched to the left and then back to the right and again in a 6 yard melee the ball was knocked toward the Hibs keeper who attempted to scoop the ball round the side of the net, inadvertently pushing it in for two-two.
Hibs began to create some more chances with Jim being awarded a free kick in the dying minutes outside the Rangers box. He came very close hitting the bar. Rangers again showed a tremendous desire to win and continued pushing forward, their left winger and manager creating havoc. The final goal when it finally came was a disaster, the ball was swung in from the left corner with a heavy challenge on the Hibs keeper, the ball was cleared back to the same side of the field and another pin point cross to the back post was made.

Full Time : Rangers 3-2.

Verdict:
They fought to the very end. There are some grounds for saying the third goal was controversial, however as referee I was looking at the ball and never really saw the challenge in the goal area. For me it was a good goal, but as so often happened during the game Hibs were to busy expecting me to decide in their favour without staying with the game.
Given this was our first game with 5 new players used in total, I am only a little disappointed with the result. The squad looks stronger for the season and in each new player we have greater scope for the coming campaign.

Kevin
(Manager London Hibs)