Jonnyboy
24-11-2020, 09:27 PM
Unsurprisingly, Hibs went with the same starting eleven that drew 2-2 with Celtic at the weekend. Christian Doidge, although available again, had to make do with a seat on the bench, whilst St Johnstone left in form David Wotherspoon out in favour of debutant Guy Melamed.
The visitors arrived on the back of an eight game unbeaten run whilst Hibs’ form of late had seen a previously miserly defence leaking goals at an alarming rate.
The game started brightly with both sides looking to attack at every opportunity. I confess that surprised me as I thought St Johnstone would be more inclined to play a cautious game and try to hit Hibs on the break. Murphy and Nisbet produced the first attempts on goal with Zander Clark comfortably saving from the former and then watching the effort of Nisbet flying high over the bar. At the other end, Melamed evaded the attention of Porteous but fired his effort high and wide.
Boyle next set up a chance for Murphy but again the effort was wayward and Mallan suffered the same fate soon after. A tricky turn by O’Halloran afforded him some space at the edge of the box but his effort failed to trouble Marciano.
Stray passes, hit too long, too short, or just woefully without conviction saw both midfield’s fail to gain any sort of superiority and from a Hibs point of view both Gogic and Newell didn’t look as though they were at it.
Around the twenty minute mark, Paul Hanlon went down injured and was quickly replaced by Darren McGregor. The nature of Hanlon’s injury wasn’t clear, but I did note that he jogged off the park so hopefully it’s nothing too serious. The arrival of McGregor meant that Porteous shuffled across into the left centre back position.
A bit of a lull in proceedings was ended when St Johnstone began to get the upper hand possession wise and efforts from both Craig and May had the warning bells sounding but sadly the Hibs rearguard didn’t hear them as both McGregor and Porteous went for the same ball allowing it to reach McCann who fired home easily from close range.
Normally, St Johnstone might have wanted to take the sting out of the game but they didn’t really get the chance as clever interplay between McGinn and Nisbet saw Kev deftly flick the ball into the path of the inrushing McGinn who fired a lovely low shot into the net via the far post. The goal came from an unlikely source, but it was well made and taken and brought Hibs level again.
Those goals arrived about ten minutes before the break and were pretty much the last meaningful instances prior to the interval.
Hibs started the second half on the front foot and a cross come shot from Boyle whistled past Clark’s far post. About five minutes later, Gogic was replaced by Doidge. In my view, Gogic had been struggling and it was no surprise when he was replaced. Not long after that change, Murphy released Mackie down the left and Sean’s cut back found an unmarked Joe Newell, but the Hibs man shot tamely wide from close range. Next, Mallan took an extra and unrequired touch before rifling a shot wide of Clark’s left hand post. I felt that if Mallan had shot right away he might well have scored.
With Wotherspoon on for the Saints the visitors started to enjoy more possession and a good pass from him set McCann free but his effort at goal was wildly off target. A needless foul on the edge of the Hibs box by Darren McGregor presented the visitors with an opportunity but the usually reliable Scott Tanser’s strike was deflected off the wall and went out for a corner.
Sitting watching this I felt we were living life dangerously and that a fair few of our passes out from the back were going astray. I guess bringing on Doidge and removing a central midfield player possibly gave us more oomph up front, but the same change meant St Johnstone were afforded more space to play in the middle third.
The visitors were getting more opportunities than Hibs to score although a mesmeric run by Murphy carved the home defence open allowing him to chip a ball to Nisbet some six yards out, but the striker hit his effort over the bar. Nisbet would feature in the next piece of action too but in a way he'd rather not be reminded of. Out on the Hibs right, just inside our half he played an aimless ball into midfield which was ceased upon by McCann who fed the ball to Wotherspoon. Strolling across the face of our box with neither Porteous nor McGregor getting anywhere near him, the former Hibs man slammed the ball past Marciano from eighteen yards. I’m critical of our two defenders here but I also feel that Marciano was badly positioned, when the ball was always close to his body as he dived which, in my opinion, was poor play by the goalie.
St Johnstone almost sneaked a third but the effort from Stevie May flew wide whilst at the other end Hibs were trying desperately to get level again. A Mackie cross into the visitors’ goal area saw Doidge get the merest of touches with the ball deflected towards Paul McGinn who controlled it before lashing a shot into the net with a slight deflection off Zander Clark. I’m going to be honest here and tell you I was singing “We’ve got McGinn” in my head!
With both sides anxious not to concede again the game kind of petered out and the result moved Hibs above Aberdeen into third, though I suspect that is only temporary.
It was another frustrating ninety minutes in my view. St Johnstone were decent from start to finish, showing the confidence of a team now unbeaten in nine games. From a Hibs perspective I felt there were too many of our players just not at it, which is frustrating to say the least. I suspect Dundee might give us a harder game next time out although their recent form has been pretty dire.
The players
Marciano – On a wet and windy night I thought his handling was excellent and I was impressed at how many times he came out to calmly claim the ball, something I’ve criticised him for not doing in the past. As I said earlier, I felt he could have done better at their second goal but that’s just maybe my disappointment coming through.
McGinn – Two goals was a wonderful contribution and, on another day, might have won him my man of the match award. The reason I’m not choosing him is that I felt there were too many misplaced passes, in both halves of the game.
Porteous – There are times when he is as solid and dependable as you’d want him to be but there are also times when he makes rash decisions. For the most part tonight I felt he performed well but it shouldn’t be forgotten that both of the goals we conceded tonight came through the centre of our defence.
Hanlon – Paul was injured early on but for the twenty minutes he lasted I thought he was fine.
Mackie – After his performance against Celtic, I, like many others, gave him the praise that his performance deserved. Not so much praise from me tonight as I thought his use of the ball was pretty sloppy a lot of the time and that he was caught out of position too often. He’s better than that and I’m fairly sure he will offer up better performances in future games.
Boyle – I’d love to say Martin did well tonight but would be lying if I did so. I have no idea why, but he has had a drastic drop in form of late and I’m struggling to recall more than one occasion tonight that he took his man on and got to the bye line.
Gogic – What you see is what you get with Alex, but what I saw tonight was a jittery performance. Or maybe it was me that was jittery because I almost put my hands in front of my eyes a few times when he dallied on the ball in dangerous areas.
Mallan – A mix of views on Stevie’s game tonight. At times he was right in there doing his job and at other times he was posted missing. He wasn’t alone in this as I mentioned earlier that a few players were just not at it.
Newell – It you were only listening to Cliff’s commentary and not watching the stream, you’d be forgiven for thinking Joe wasn’t playing tonight. He was hardly mentioned and that’s because I’ve never seen him go missing for such huge chunks of the game before. Sure, he played the occasional nice pass and should have scored from the Mackie cutback, but I’ve come to expect a lot more from him.
Murphy – A delight to watch this very clever and incredibly talented footballer. I thought he was excellent tonight and very much up for the challenge. The mazy run to set up Nisbet was mouth watering and Jamie wins my man of the match award, hands down.
Nisbet – Once again, Kevin was largely starved of decent supply and it’s a shame that what I’ll recall of him in this game is not the fabulous feed to McGinn for the first goal but his shocking ball to no-one that led to their second goal. It both surprised and shocked me at the time as one of his strengths for me is his retention of and use of the ball.
McGregor – I love big Daz; I love his passion and commitment and of course his love of the club but I feel that together with Porteous he shares a large part of the blame for the goals we lost tonight. It’s possibly because he’s not had a lot of game time and is combat rusty, I don’t know.
Doidge – The big fella got the lion’s share of the second half but wasn’t really involved a great deal as the game unfolded. There were a couple of touches that created half chances, but he never really got to show his prowess in attacking a high ball into the box.
Gullan – Jamie got about ten minutes or so but didn’t really feature in anything of note.
Jack Ross – Still haven’t read or heard his interview but I sincerely hope he admits that defensively we have been a bit of a shambles recently.
Referee – Kevin Clancy – Had a quiet night of it as there were no major talking points regarding his decision making.
The visitors arrived on the back of an eight game unbeaten run whilst Hibs’ form of late had seen a previously miserly defence leaking goals at an alarming rate.
The game started brightly with both sides looking to attack at every opportunity. I confess that surprised me as I thought St Johnstone would be more inclined to play a cautious game and try to hit Hibs on the break. Murphy and Nisbet produced the first attempts on goal with Zander Clark comfortably saving from the former and then watching the effort of Nisbet flying high over the bar. At the other end, Melamed evaded the attention of Porteous but fired his effort high and wide.
Boyle next set up a chance for Murphy but again the effort was wayward and Mallan suffered the same fate soon after. A tricky turn by O’Halloran afforded him some space at the edge of the box but his effort failed to trouble Marciano.
Stray passes, hit too long, too short, or just woefully without conviction saw both midfield’s fail to gain any sort of superiority and from a Hibs point of view both Gogic and Newell didn’t look as though they were at it.
Around the twenty minute mark, Paul Hanlon went down injured and was quickly replaced by Darren McGregor. The nature of Hanlon’s injury wasn’t clear, but I did note that he jogged off the park so hopefully it’s nothing too serious. The arrival of McGregor meant that Porteous shuffled across into the left centre back position.
A bit of a lull in proceedings was ended when St Johnstone began to get the upper hand possession wise and efforts from both Craig and May had the warning bells sounding but sadly the Hibs rearguard didn’t hear them as both McGregor and Porteous went for the same ball allowing it to reach McCann who fired home easily from close range.
Normally, St Johnstone might have wanted to take the sting out of the game but they didn’t really get the chance as clever interplay between McGinn and Nisbet saw Kev deftly flick the ball into the path of the inrushing McGinn who fired a lovely low shot into the net via the far post. The goal came from an unlikely source, but it was well made and taken and brought Hibs level again.
Those goals arrived about ten minutes before the break and were pretty much the last meaningful instances prior to the interval.
Hibs started the second half on the front foot and a cross come shot from Boyle whistled past Clark’s far post. About five minutes later, Gogic was replaced by Doidge. In my view, Gogic had been struggling and it was no surprise when he was replaced. Not long after that change, Murphy released Mackie down the left and Sean’s cut back found an unmarked Joe Newell, but the Hibs man shot tamely wide from close range. Next, Mallan took an extra and unrequired touch before rifling a shot wide of Clark’s left hand post. I felt that if Mallan had shot right away he might well have scored.
With Wotherspoon on for the Saints the visitors started to enjoy more possession and a good pass from him set McCann free but his effort at goal was wildly off target. A needless foul on the edge of the Hibs box by Darren McGregor presented the visitors with an opportunity but the usually reliable Scott Tanser’s strike was deflected off the wall and went out for a corner.
Sitting watching this I felt we were living life dangerously and that a fair few of our passes out from the back were going astray. I guess bringing on Doidge and removing a central midfield player possibly gave us more oomph up front, but the same change meant St Johnstone were afforded more space to play in the middle third.
The visitors were getting more opportunities than Hibs to score although a mesmeric run by Murphy carved the home defence open allowing him to chip a ball to Nisbet some six yards out, but the striker hit his effort over the bar. Nisbet would feature in the next piece of action too but in a way he'd rather not be reminded of. Out on the Hibs right, just inside our half he played an aimless ball into midfield which was ceased upon by McCann who fed the ball to Wotherspoon. Strolling across the face of our box with neither Porteous nor McGregor getting anywhere near him, the former Hibs man slammed the ball past Marciano from eighteen yards. I’m critical of our two defenders here but I also feel that Marciano was badly positioned, when the ball was always close to his body as he dived which, in my opinion, was poor play by the goalie.
St Johnstone almost sneaked a third but the effort from Stevie May flew wide whilst at the other end Hibs were trying desperately to get level again. A Mackie cross into the visitors’ goal area saw Doidge get the merest of touches with the ball deflected towards Paul McGinn who controlled it before lashing a shot into the net with a slight deflection off Zander Clark. I’m going to be honest here and tell you I was singing “We’ve got McGinn” in my head!
With both sides anxious not to concede again the game kind of petered out and the result moved Hibs above Aberdeen into third, though I suspect that is only temporary.
It was another frustrating ninety minutes in my view. St Johnstone were decent from start to finish, showing the confidence of a team now unbeaten in nine games. From a Hibs perspective I felt there were too many of our players just not at it, which is frustrating to say the least. I suspect Dundee might give us a harder game next time out although their recent form has been pretty dire.
The players
Marciano – On a wet and windy night I thought his handling was excellent and I was impressed at how many times he came out to calmly claim the ball, something I’ve criticised him for not doing in the past. As I said earlier, I felt he could have done better at their second goal but that’s just maybe my disappointment coming through.
McGinn – Two goals was a wonderful contribution and, on another day, might have won him my man of the match award. The reason I’m not choosing him is that I felt there were too many misplaced passes, in both halves of the game.
Porteous – There are times when he is as solid and dependable as you’d want him to be but there are also times when he makes rash decisions. For the most part tonight I felt he performed well but it shouldn’t be forgotten that both of the goals we conceded tonight came through the centre of our defence.
Hanlon – Paul was injured early on but for the twenty minutes he lasted I thought he was fine.
Mackie – After his performance against Celtic, I, like many others, gave him the praise that his performance deserved. Not so much praise from me tonight as I thought his use of the ball was pretty sloppy a lot of the time and that he was caught out of position too often. He’s better than that and I’m fairly sure he will offer up better performances in future games.
Boyle – I’d love to say Martin did well tonight but would be lying if I did so. I have no idea why, but he has had a drastic drop in form of late and I’m struggling to recall more than one occasion tonight that he took his man on and got to the bye line.
Gogic – What you see is what you get with Alex, but what I saw tonight was a jittery performance. Or maybe it was me that was jittery because I almost put my hands in front of my eyes a few times when he dallied on the ball in dangerous areas.
Mallan – A mix of views on Stevie’s game tonight. At times he was right in there doing his job and at other times he was posted missing. He wasn’t alone in this as I mentioned earlier that a few players were just not at it.
Newell – It you were only listening to Cliff’s commentary and not watching the stream, you’d be forgiven for thinking Joe wasn’t playing tonight. He was hardly mentioned and that’s because I’ve never seen him go missing for such huge chunks of the game before. Sure, he played the occasional nice pass and should have scored from the Mackie cutback, but I’ve come to expect a lot more from him.
Murphy – A delight to watch this very clever and incredibly talented footballer. I thought he was excellent tonight and very much up for the challenge. The mazy run to set up Nisbet was mouth watering and Jamie wins my man of the match award, hands down.
Nisbet – Once again, Kevin was largely starved of decent supply and it’s a shame that what I’ll recall of him in this game is not the fabulous feed to McGinn for the first goal but his shocking ball to no-one that led to their second goal. It both surprised and shocked me at the time as one of his strengths for me is his retention of and use of the ball.
McGregor – I love big Daz; I love his passion and commitment and of course his love of the club but I feel that together with Porteous he shares a large part of the blame for the goals we lost tonight. It’s possibly because he’s not had a lot of game time and is combat rusty, I don’t know.
Doidge – The big fella got the lion’s share of the second half but wasn’t really involved a great deal as the game unfolded. There were a couple of touches that created half chances, but he never really got to show his prowess in attacking a high ball into the box.
Gullan – Jamie got about ten minutes or so but didn’t really feature in anything of note.
Jack Ross – Still haven’t read or heard his interview but I sincerely hope he admits that defensively we have been a bit of a shambles recently.
Referee – Kevin Clancy – Had a quiet night of it as there were no major talking points regarding his decision making.