Jonnyboy
26-11-2019, 11:41 PM
It was raining heavily in Paisley and on a soaking wet pitch Hibs hardly managed to get out of first gear and yet took the points with a 2-1 win. There was little evidence of the high tempo game often displayed against Motherwell last time out and indeed Hibs laboured for large parts of the game with the hosts seeming to enjoy as much possession as they wanted.
Unsurprisingly, the starting eleven and bench was the same for the third game in a row and maybe the effort expended in the last two outings caught up with a number of players. I thought they looked lethargic from the off and maybe a fresh face or two might have helped but you can’t fault the manager for not fixing what ain’t broke.
One thing that surprised me was that the home goalkeeper was wearing an outfit that was far too close in colour to the Hibs away strip and during the first half, when he occupied the far away goal from where I sat, it was often difficult to tell whether it was a Hibs man or the goalie in the six yard box.
The hosts started well, in an effort to maintain the form that saw them win last time out and they soon began to swarm around the Hibs goal. As was the case against Motherwell our diamond midfield allowed the opposition free access down the wings and whilst Newell often helped Stevenson out on the left, Slivka invariably failed to provide similar assistance to Naismith who often had two and sometimes three opponents running at him.
When Hibs did venture forward they were too often stopped in their tracks by some quite crude challenges and it took referee Alan Newlands a while to clamp down on that before producing a yellow card.
The hosts had two early chances and should have done better when crosses from their left found both Magennis and Flynn who failed to connect properly and get their efforts on target. There was then a quite unsavoury moment when Gurmis took exception to a Naismith tackle and as the ball moved away the Saints man flicked a leg out, catching Naismith who reacted by pushing the winger to the ground. Referee Newlands had his back to the incident but awarded the home side a free kick, presumably on the word of one of his assistants or the fourth official. The annoying this was that he lectured Naismith but said nothing to Gurmis.
With the half hour mark approaching, Naismith left Gurmis for dead before lofting a cross into the area. Doidge jumped with McKenzie and the Hibs striker tried to steer his header downwards only to see it hit the top of McKenzie’s head before looping up and over Hladky to give the visitors an unlikely lead. It was Doidge’s goal in my view and took him to five from his last three games. There will be some who are less charitable and make much of the deflection, one such fan was sitting behind me and he knows who he is!
St. Mirren continued to pepper the Hibs goal with crosses but by and large the defenders dealt well enough with them and we managed to take our lead in at the interval.
Very early in the second half, Maxwell raced from his goal and flattened Magennis. It looked like a red but Newlands only brandished a yellow, much to the ire of the home support. On the subject of that support you have to give credit to the bunch of wannabe Paulo Nutini’s who sang and bounced their way through the game.
Kamberi was then replaced by Boyle. Flo limped off and I heard the radio interview after the game when it was said he’d suffered a back injury. Boyle joined Doidge up front but still the traffic flowed towards the Hibs goal. Five minutes later, Horgan replaced Newell and Ross restructured the team to have the subs both playing wide and to a large extent that stemmed the flow of crosses in to our box. The hosts continued to enjoy possession but the truth is that due to some wayward finishing, Maxwell had very few shots to face and coped admirably when required to come and claim high deliveries into his area.
Scott Allan hadn’t looked at his best and it was no real surprise that with twenty or so minutes left he was replaced by Mallan. Not long after there was a narrow escape when Mullin fired in a long range effort that hit the post and Obika somehow managed to fire the rebound wide. Had he scored it wouldn’t have counted as he’d been flagged offside anyway.
As St. Mirren grew more and more desperate they pushed further and further up the park and they were punished when a cracking pass released Boyle into the box and as he dropped his shoulder and went to round his marker he was hauled to the ground. It was a proverbial stonewaller and I was stunned to see Newlands hesitate and only award the penalty on the advice of his assistant. There was the usual slight delay whilst St. Mirren players protested but that didn’t affect Stevie Mallan who blasted the ball home from twelve yards.
There was less than ten minutes left now and it was surely all about game management. In fact, Hibs pushed forward again and Boyle broke free on the right, entered the box and wrong footed his marker but rather than shoot he unselfishly tried to square the ball to an unmarked Doidge. Unfortunately it clipped the leg of a defender and rolled behind the Hibs number 9 and moments later at the other end, Morias gave his side a lifeline but thankfully it was too late and Hibs secured the three points that consolidate sixth place.
There were no real standouts in the Hibs side and that makes my man of the match award harder to decide upon but having given it some thought on the way home I’m going to go for Doidge who never stopped all night and provided crucial support at times to a defence dealing with endless numbers of crosses.
The players
Maxwell – Strangely, he didn’t have a lot to do but can count himself lucky he only got a yellow for the challenge on Magennis.
Naismith – Given that he was left isolated a lot, especially in the first half, I thought he coped pretty well.
Porteous – Football is a funny game isn’t it? I thought Ryan was not at his best tonight but heard someone else lauding him as their man of the match!
Hanlon – Had a tricky time of it tonight and was bailed out a couple of times by Porteous but to counter balance that he in turn bailed out Porteous a couple of times.
Stevenson – Coped well with the attacks down his side of the park and all in all gave a standard and solid Lewis performance – i.e. 7/10.
Slivka – As good as he was against Motherwell and I thought he was better than some gave him credit for he was back to his floating about not doing a lot mode and owes Naismith a pint for failing to offer sufficient cover to the full back.
Hallberg – Got through a power of work and with Slivka not at the races he had to do just that.
Allan – Not one of Scott’s better nights. In fact, I’m surprised he stayed on as long as he did.
Newell – Decent help for Lewis on the left but drifted out of the game too often.
Kamberi – I thought Flo didn’t look fit at the start and it showed in his poor movement.
Doidge – Covered more blades of grass than most and when Flo went off and Boyler eventually went wide right he was left on his own to try and close down the centre backs. Didn’t always achieve that but that was not due to lack of effort on his part.
Boyle – I’m delighted to see him getting back to full fitness. Brought some much needed pace to proceedings and caused the danger that resulted in the penalty award.
Horgan – By staying wide left he helped stop the flow of play down that side but in truth I don’t think he really contributed much else.
Mallan – Looked lively when he came on, pinged a few decent (and one horrible) passes and buried the penalty.
Jack Ross – I heard his post-match interview on the radio and I found it refreshingly honest.
The fans – Not a great deal of noise from the 1100+ Hibs fans but given that I was sitting close to the St. Mirren lads, maybe the Hibs boys were just drowned out.
Alan Newlands – At times far too lenient whilst at other times he was far too heavy handed and I direct those comments at him for both sides.
Edit: My apologies to Daryl Horgan as it was his superb pass that set Boyle free at the penalty incident.
Unsurprisingly, the starting eleven and bench was the same for the third game in a row and maybe the effort expended in the last two outings caught up with a number of players. I thought they looked lethargic from the off and maybe a fresh face or two might have helped but you can’t fault the manager for not fixing what ain’t broke.
One thing that surprised me was that the home goalkeeper was wearing an outfit that was far too close in colour to the Hibs away strip and during the first half, when he occupied the far away goal from where I sat, it was often difficult to tell whether it was a Hibs man or the goalie in the six yard box.
The hosts started well, in an effort to maintain the form that saw them win last time out and they soon began to swarm around the Hibs goal. As was the case against Motherwell our diamond midfield allowed the opposition free access down the wings and whilst Newell often helped Stevenson out on the left, Slivka invariably failed to provide similar assistance to Naismith who often had two and sometimes three opponents running at him.
When Hibs did venture forward they were too often stopped in their tracks by some quite crude challenges and it took referee Alan Newlands a while to clamp down on that before producing a yellow card.
The hosts had two early chances and should have done better when crosses from their left found both Magennis and Flynn who failed to connect properly and get their efforts on target. There was then a quite unsavoury moment when Gurmis took exception to a Naismith tackle and as the ball moved away the Saints man flicked a leg out, catching Naismith who reacted by pushing the winger to the ground. Referee Newlands had his back to the incident but awarded the home side a free kick, presumably on the word of one of his assistants or the fourth official. The annoying this was that he lectured Naismith but said nothing to Gurmis.
With the half hour mark approaching, Naismith left Gurmis for dead before lofting a cross into the area. Doidge jumped with McKenzie and the Hibs striker tried to steer his header downwards only to see it hit the top of McKenzie’s head before looping up and over Hladky to give the visitors an unlikely lead. It was Doidge’s goal in my view and took him to five from his last three games. There will be some who are less charitable and make much of the deflection, one such fan was sitting behind me and he knows who he is!
St. Mirren continued to pepper the Hibs goal with crosses but by and large the defenders dealt well enough with them and we managed to take our lead in at the interval.
Very early in the second half, Maxwell raced from his goal and flattened Magennis. It looked like a red but Newlands only brandished a yellow, much to the ire of the home support. On the subject of that support you have to give credit to the bunch of wannabe Paulo Nutini’s who sang and bounced their way through the game.
Kamberi was then replaced by Boyle. Flo limped off and I heard the radio interview after the game when it was said he’d suffered a back injury. Boyle joined Doidge up front but still the traffic flowed towards the Hibs goal. Five minutes later, Horgan replaced Newell and Ross restructured the team to have the subs both playing wide and to a large extent that stemmed the flow of crosses in to our box. The hosts continued to enjoy possession but the truth is that due to some wayward finishing, Maxwell had very few shots to face and coped admirably when required to come and claim high deliveries into his area.
Scott Allan hadn’t looked at his best and it was no real surprise that with twenty or so minutes left he was replaced by Mallan. Not long after there was a narrow escape when Mullin fired in a long range effort that hit the post and Obika somehow managed to fire the rebound wide. Had he scored it wouldn’t have counted as he’d been flagged offside anyway.
As St. Mirren grew more and more desperate they pushed further and further up the park and they were punished when a cracking pass released Boyle into the box and as he dropped his shoulder and went to round his marker he was hauled to the ground. It was a proverbial stonewaller and I was stunned to see Newlands hesitate and only award the penalty on the advice of his assistant. There was the usual slight delay whilst St. Mirren players protested but that didn’t affect Stevie Mallan who blasted the ball home from twelve yards.
There was less than ten minutes left now and it was surely all about game management. In fact, Hibs pushed forward again and Boyle broke free on the right, entered the box and wrong footed his marker but rather than shoot he unselfishly tried to square the ball to an unmarked Doidge. Unfortunately it clipped the leg of a defender and rolled behind the Hibs number 9 and moments later at the other end, Morias gave his side a lifeline but thankfully it was too late and Hibs secured the three points that consolidate sixth place.
There were no real standouts in the Hibs side and that makes my man of the match award harder to decide upon but having given it some thought on the way home I’m going to go for Doidge who never stopped all night and provided crucial support at times to a defence dealing with endless numbers of crosses.
The players
Maxwell – Strangely, he didn’t have a lot to do but can count himself lucky he only got a yellow for the challenge on Magennis.
Naismith – Given that he was left isolated a lot, especially in the first half, I thought he coped pretty well.
Porteous – Football is a funny game isn’t it? I thought Ryan was not at his best tonight but heard someone else lauding him as their man of the match!
Hanlon – Had a tricky time of it tonight and was bailed out a couple of times by Porteous but to counter balance that he in turn bailed out Porteous a couple of times.
Stevenson – Coped well with the attacks down his side of the park and all in all gave a standard and solid Lewis performance – i.e. 7/10.
Slivka – As good as he was against Motherwell and I thought he was better than some gave him credit for he was back to his floating about not doing a lot mode and owes Naismith a pint for failing to offer sufficient cover to the full back.
Hallberg – Got through a power of work and with Slivka not at the races he had to do just that.
Allan – Not one of Scott’s better nights. In fact, I’m surprised he stayed on as long as he did.
Newell – Decent help for Lewis on the left but drifted out of the game too often.
Kamberi – I thought Flo didn’t look fit at the start and it showed in his poor movement.
Doidge – Covered more blades of grass than most and when Flo went off and Boyler eventually went wide right he was left on his own to try and close down the centre backs. Didn’t always achieve that but that was not due to lack of effort on his part.
Boyle – I’m delighted to see him getting back to full fitness. Brought some much needed pace to proceedings and caused the danger that resulted in the penalty award.
Horgan – By staying wide left he helped stop the flow of play down that side but in truth I don’t think he really contributed much else.
Mallan – Looked lively when he came on, pinged a few decent (and one horrible) passes and buried the penalty.
Jack Ross – I heard his post-match interview on the radio and I found it refreshingly honest.
The fans – Not a great deal of noise from the 1100+ Hibs fans but given that I was sitting close to the St. Mirren lads, maybe the Hibs boys were just drowned out.
Alan Newlands – At times far too lenient whilst at other times he was far too heavy handed and I direct those comments at him for both sides.
Edit: My apologies to Daryl Horgan as it was his superb pass that set Boyle free at the penalty incident.