Jonnyboy
13-10-2020, 10:09 PM
Station Park became Frustration Park tonight as the online coverage turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Buffering made the game pretty much unwatchable until I finally got a decent stream for the second half. The experience improved a little, but the automated camera had me straining my eyes to follow the play and so it’s more than a bit difficult to offer any thoughts as to how the game panned out.
With Paul Hanlon deservedly called up to the Scotland squad and Lewis Stevenson carrying an injury, suffered late in the game against Cove, Jack Ross had extremely limited resources to call upon. This led to Melker Hallberg being asked to play right back, David Gray at centre half and Sean Mackie at left back. Kyle Magennis was given a starting spot in midfield and Ryan Shanley was paired with Doidge up front, Jamie Gullan moving to left midfield to accommodate Ryan’s inclusion. A limited bench included both Martin Boyle and Kevin Nisbet and my guess is that Jack Ross would be hoping he didn’t have to press them into action.
From what I could make out the hosts started brightly enough and were quick to close down any Hibs player that had possession. The playing surface looked awful and from what I could gather the weather was both wet and windy too.
Both Gullan and Mackie had efforts charged down whilst corners won at either end caused no problems for defenders before Barnes saved easily from a Shepherd header that had neither power nor direction.
With half time approaching a challenge in midfield saw Mallan and Whyte come together with the Forfar man falling awkwardly. Lengthy treatment ended with the Forfar player being carried off on a stretcher and the already unwatchable stream had to be tolerated for a long period of time added on.
There were no changes to personnel at half time but as I mentioned earlier, I managed to find a stream via You Tube which effectively was the Forfar stream everyone had signed up for but through a third party with no buffering! The only irritation was the ‘commentator’ telling all and sundry that the Hibs squad had been depleted by Covid and that Sean Mackie has been a regular at left back this season. 0/10 for preparation.
As the hour mark arrived and with Hibs showing no signs of scoring, Jack Ross replaced a tiring Kyle Magennis and youngster Ryan Shanley with Martin Boyle and Kevin Nisbet. A few Forfar players were now visibly suffering with cramp and subs were made to freshen things up.
Hibs should have been in front with around twenty minutes to play when a cross from the left met the forehead of Kevin Nisbet, but the striker’s effort smashed back off the crossbar and was cleared. At the other end, Dillon Barnes was largely a spectator and had to deal with more passbacks than attempts on his goal.
It was beginning to look like penalties might be needed to settle the tie but Hibs came close again when Boyle skipped clear on the right and crossed the ball into the area but the header from Christian Doidge was easily saved.
With less than five minutes left, Doidge won a free kick out on the right and when Mallan’s excellent delivery reached the head of David Gray, SDG bulleted the ball home to settle the tie.
As I said earlier, this was a really frustrating watch and I’d be being less than honest if I tried to summarise the performance of each individual. I simply didn’t get a good enough look at them for the most part with the dodgy camera work. Instead I’ll settle for saying well done to the depleted side for grinding out another win and hope that with the troops all back for Saturday’s visit to Dingwall, we get a better stream, a stronger team and three points to round it all off.
With Paul Hanlon deservedly called up to the Scotland squad and Lewis Stevenson carrying an injury, suffered late in the game against Cove, Jack Ross had extremely limited resources to call upon. This led to Melker Hallberg being asked to play right back, David Gray at centre half and Sean Mackie at left back. Kyle Magennis was given a starting spot in midfield and Ryan Shanley was paired with Doidge up front, Jamie Gullan moving to left midfield to accommodate Ryan’s inclusion. A limited bench included both Martin Boyle and Kevin Nisbet and my guess is that Jack Ross would be hoping he didn’t have to press them into action.
From what I could make out the hosts started brightly enough and were quick to close down any Hibs player that had possession. The playing surface looked awful and from what I could gather the weather was both wet and windy too.
Both Gullan and Mackie had efforts charged down whilst corners won at either end caused no problems for defenders before Barnes saved easily from a Shepherd header that had neither power nor direction.
With half time approaching a challenge in midfield saw Mallan and Whyte come together with the Forfar man falling awkwardly. Lengthy treatment ended with the Forfar player being carried off on a stretcher and the already unwatchable stream had to be tolerated for a long period of time added on.
There were no changes to personnel at half time but as I mentioned earlier, I managed to find a stream via You Tube which effectively was the Forfar stream everyone had signed up for but through a third party with no buffering! The only irritation was the ‘commentator’ telling all and sundry that the Hibs squad had been depleted by Covid and that Sean Mackie has been a regular at left back this season. 0/10 for preparation.
As the hour mark arrived and with Hibs showing no signs of scoring, Jack Ross replaced a tiring Kyle Magennis and youngster Ryan Shanley with Martin Boyle and Kevin Nisbet. A few Forfar players were now visibly suffering with cramp and subs were made to freshen things up.
Hibs should have been in front with around twenty minutes to play when a cross from the left met the forehead of Kevin Nisbet, but the striker’s effort smashed back off the crossbar and was cleared. At the other end, Dillon Barnes was largely a spectator and had to deal with more passbacks than attempts on his goal.
It was beginning to look like penalties might be needed to settle the tie but Hibs came close again when Boyle skipped clear on the right and crossed the ball into the area but the header from Christian Doidge was easily saved.
With less than five minutes left, Doidge won a free kick out on the right and when Mallan’s excellent delivery reached the head of David Gray, SDG bulleted the ball home to settle the tie.
As I said earlier, this was a really frustrating watch and I’d be being less than honest if I tried to summarise the performance of each individual. I simply didn’t get a good enough look at them for the most part with the dodgy camera work. Instead I’ll settle for saying well done to the depleted side for grinding out another win and hope that with the troops all back for Saturday’s visit to Dingwall, we get a better stream, a stronger team and three points to round it all off.