This is how it feels (Morton 20 07 22)

[Jonnyboy]

Totally unacceptable. That’s how I feel about the fact that we have failed to win a group in which our opponents were from the lower leagues. Totally unacceptable. That’s how I feel about tonight’s pitiful performance in which we struggled to get a draw over 90 minutes and then failed to score three penalties in what may turn out to be a meaningless exercise but nonetheless was pitiful to watch. There was little of note to call positives on and plenty of negatives as we failed to show any of the front foot, high tempo football we’ve been promised.

To the game itself, and this write up may be shorter than the norm because there’s only so many ways to describe the frankly poor performance of more than a few Hibs players. From the off, Hibs looked sluggish and to be honest that sluggishness lasted at least until half time with Morton first to threaten when first Kabia and then Strapp had pops at goal. In defence, we had the unusual sight of Chris Cadden playing left back whilst further forward McGeady and Melkersen seemed to be lined up on the opposite wings than might have been expected.

Morton, and in particular their goalkeeper, were keen to waste time at every opportunity, a fact that took referee Euan Anderson an age to do anything about. When he eventually had words with the Morton keeper it made little difference and I recall thinking that even if he booked the keeper, it was highly unlikely, he’d issue a second for the same offence. A Melkersen effort raised the spirits briefly, but the ball flew wide of the post before a flurry of half chances came to nothing for Doidge, Henderson and Newell. It was evident that Miller was popping up in the box for crosses from the left but just about every such cross sailed harmlessly over his head. Miller did have one shot at goal that whistled wide but for the most part the endless timewasting and overzealous use of the whistle by the referee stopped any semblance of fluidity in play.

I expected the manager to make changes at the interval and he did, by replacing Kenneh and Miller with Campbell and Tavares with Cadden moving to right back and Campbell at left back. Tavares started on the right and his first touch brought gasps of appreciation when he saw a defender rushing it to challenge and simply clipped the ball into the air, sidestepped the challenge and went on his merry way.

The proverbial half time rocket had Hibs playing with more tempo but despite winning s series of corners there was still no threat to the Morton goal. A Henderson drive from twenty yards was straight at the keeper and I think I’m right in saying it was our first shot on target. On the hour, Morton replaced Easdale with Robbie Muirhead and the big striker, once of Hearts, started causing Hibs a few headaches. His early pass allowed Kabia to test Marshall and then seconds later, Hibs went behind when Newell handled the ball in the area. Some around me thought it harsh but it spoke volumes that only Newell remonstrated with the referee whilst his team mates raised not a whisper.

Grant Gillespie was the man entrusted with the job and he sent Marshall the wrong way, much to the delight of the small band of Morton fans behind that goal. Five minutes later, Melkersen went close, but his shot just cleared the crossbar. There was much huffing and puffing from Hibs, but the Morton goal was rarely threatened. Everything was just too slow and too obvious and played in front of a packed defence. In an effort to liven things up, Johnson replaced the ineffective Doidge with Bojang, and it was his stretching touch that led to Henderson picking up the ball, striding into the box and firing a left footed shot into the net.

The timewasting by Morton players was getting beyond a joke and any hopes Hibs had of building up a head of steam for the final twenty minutes was knocked on the head. A couple of Morton yellows were followed by a yellow for Porteous who once again got caught wrong side of his man and had to foul him to stop any progress before, in the last minute of normal time, McGeady flashed a left footed shot just wide of the far post. As there was no fourth official and like the sad person I am, I set my stopwatch when the ninety minutes were up. The referee added five minutes and during that time two further Morton players were booked for kicking the ball away and Hibs won a couple of corners that came to nothing.

On then to the penalty shootout and that just added to the frustration of the night as Hibs missed their first three through Henderson, McGeady and Porteous. Morton scored enough of them to win the tie and when the winning one went in the boos echoed around the stadium.

The players

Marshall – Had very little to do and was on a hiding to nothing with the penalties.

Miller – I have real concerns about the lad’s quality.

Bushiri – Won pretty much everything in the air and to his credit he tried hard in the second half to burst forward with the ball.

Porteous – I’ve no idea what’s wrong with Ryan but he’s playing within himself and making daft errors.

Cadden – At left back he struggled a bit defensively but looked more at home in the second half when switched to the right.

Kenneh – I kinda feel for the lad because his misdirected passes brought groans from the crowd whilst others like Porteous and Henderson did much the same but got no negative reaction at all.

Newell – Still arguing with the ref after the penalty had been scored. I mean, what’s the point, Joe?

McGeady – Surprised he was on until the end.

Henderson – Took his goal well but disappeared for spells throughout the game.

Melkersen – Once again the runs were made and not picked out. I know I’m frustrated, and I bet he is too.

Doidge – Pretty much anonymous.

Tavares – Showed some nice touches and seemed happy to compete physically.

Campbell – Gets pelters on here but his second half performance put his team mates to shame. Full of energy and most importantly commitment, qualities sadly lacking in many others.

Bojang – Looked a bit lost at times but one thing that caught my eye is that he seems decent in the air.

Lee Johnson – Will be under pressure now and rightly so because there seemed to be no shape or rhythm to play.

Referee – Euan Anderson should retire his whistle as it must be exhausted tonight.

Finally – No man of the match for me tonight but if my arm was twisted I’d give it to Josh Campbell.

[Stuart93]

I thought Rocky and Henderson were head and shoulders above the rest of the outfield players.

Whilst Campbell did play better than he has, still never contributed anything of real note for me.

[darwenhibby]

Good summary JB
Josh Campbell did play to the best of his ability in a position alien to him
David Marshall distribution and footwork gave some of the outfield players a lesson
He must be thinking what have I come to here

[Greenbeard]

Thought Henderson deserved his MoM.
First I've seen of Miller and McGeady. How they are meant to improve Hibs is beyond me. Once Miller had made a few errors he was like a rabbit in headlights. McGeady looked every one of his 36 years.
Dire stuff overall. Relegation form for sure.

[CL0762]

Totally unacceptable. That’s how I feel about the fact that we have failed to win a group in which our opponents were from the lower leagues. Totally unacceptable. That’s how I feel about tonight’s pitiful performance in which we struggled to get a draw over 90 minutes and then failed to score three penalties in what may turn out to be a meaningless exercise but nonetheless was pitiful to watch. There was little of note to call positives on and plenty of negatives as we failed to show any of the front foot, high tempo football we’ve been promised.

To the game itself, and this write up may be shorter than the norm because there’s only so many ways to describe the frankly poor performance of more than a few Hibs players. From the off, Hibs looked sluggish and to be honest that sluggishness lasted at least until half time with Morton first to threaten when first Kabia and then Strapp had pops at goal. In defence, we had the unusual sight of Chris Cadden playing left back whilst further forward McGeady and Melkersen seemed to be lined up on the opposite wings than might have been expected.

Morton, and in particular their goalkeeper, were keen to waste time at every opportunity, a fact that took referee Euan Anderson an age to do anything about. When he eventually had words with the Morton keeper it made little difference and I recall thinking that even if he booked the keeper, it was highly unlikely, he’d issue a second for the same offence. A Melkersen effort raised the spirits briefly, but the ball flew wide of the post before a flurry of half chances came to nothing for Doidge, Henderson and Newell. It was evident that Miller was popping up in the box for crosses from the left but just about every such cross sailed harmlessly over his head. Miller did have one shot at goal that whistled wide but for the most part the endless timewasting and overzealous use of the whistle by the referee stopped any semblance of fluidity in play.

I expected the manager to make changes at the interval and he did, by replacing Kenneh and Miller with Campbell and Tavares with Cadden moving to right back and Campbell at left back. Tavares started on the right and his first touch brought gasps of appreciation when he saw a defender rushing it to challenge and simply clipped the ball into the air, sidestepped the challenge and went on his merry way.

The proverbial half time rocket had Hibs playing with more tempo but despite winning s series of corners there was still no threat to the Morton goal. A Henderson drive from twenty yards was straight at the keeper and I think I’m right in saying it was our first shot on target. On the hour, Morton replaced Easdale with Robbie Muirhead and the big striker, once of Hearts, started causing Hibs a few headaches. His early pass allowed Kabia to test Marshall and then seconds later, Hibs went behind when Newell handled the ball in the area. Some around me thought it harsh but it spoke volumes that only Newell remonstrated with the referee whilst his team mates raised not a whisper.

Grant Gillespie was the man entrusted with the job and he sent Marshall the wrong way, much to the delight of the small band of Morton fans behind that goal. Five minutes later, Melkersen went close, but his shot just cleared the crossbar. There was much huffing and puffing from Hibs, but the Morton goal was rarely threatened. Everything was just too slow and too obvious and played in front of a packed defence. In an effort to liven things up, Johnson replaced the ineffective Doidge with Bojang, and it was his stretching touch that led to Henderson picking up the ball, striding into the box and firing a left footed shot into the net.

The timewasting by Morton players was getting beyond a joke and any hopes Hibs had of building up a head of steam for the final twenty minutes was knocked on the head. A couple of Morton yellows were followed by a yellow for Porteous who once again got caught wrong side of his man and had to foul him to stop any progress before, in the last minute of normal time, McGeady flashed a left footed shot just wide of the far post. As there was no fourth official and like the sad person I am, I set my stopwatch when the ninety minutes were up. The referee added five minutes and during that time two further Morton players were booked for kicking the ball away and Hibs won a couple of corners that came to nothing.

On then to the penalty shootout and that just added to the frustration of the night as Hibs missed their first three through Henderson, McGeady and Porteous. Morton scored enough of them to win the tie and when the winning one went in the boos echoed around the stadium.

The players

Marshall – Had very little to do and was on a hiding to nothing with the penalties.

Miller – I have real concerns about the lad’s quality.

Bushiri – Won pretty much everything in the air and to his credit he tried hard in the second half to burst forward with the ball.

Porteous – I’ve no idea what’s wrong with Ryan but he’s playing within himself and making daft errors.

Cadden – At left back he struggled a bit defensively but looked more at home in the second half when switched to the right.

Kenneh – I kinda feel for the lad because his misdirected passes brought groans from the crowd whilst others like Porteous and Henderson did much the same but got no negative reaction at all.

Newell – Still arguing with the ref after the penalty had been scored. I mean, what’s the point, Joe?

McGeady – Surprised he was on until the end.

Henderson – Took his goal well but disappeared for spells throughout the game.

Melkersen – Once again the runs were made and not picked out. I know I’m frustrated, and I bet he is too.

Doidge – Pretty much anonymous.

Tavares – Showed some nice touches and seemed happy to compete physically.

Campbell – Gets pelters on here but his second half performance put his team mates to shame. Full of energy and most importantly commitment, qualities sadly lacking in many others.

Bojang – Looked a bit lost at times but one thing that caught my eye is that he seems decent in the air.

Lee Johnson – Will be under pressure now and rightly so because there seemed to be no shape or rhythm to play.

Referee – Euan Anderson should retire his whistle as it must be exhausted tonight.

Finally – No man of the match for me tonight but if my arm was twisted I’d give it to Josh Campbell.

Agree 100% with the point about Melkersen, at least 2/3 times he made runs in between the fullback & centre back yet McGeady just held onto the ball.

I’d be pissed off if I was him. He’s not even getting the ball in non dangerous areas to try and make something happen for himself.

[The Harp Awakes]

Thanks JB, always a good read.

For once I find myself disagreeing with your player assessments however. Thought you are very harsh on Henderson - easily Hibs best player. Campbell, potential MoM - wow! The lad did ok when he came on but nothing more. Miller - didn't think he did that badly before hooked. McGeady - 2 players on him the entire 90 minutes but still looked bright and put in 2 top drawer crosses which should have led to goals.

Opinions eh?

[belhavenbill]

Mostly agree with the assessment. I might be inclined to give mom to Marshall who looked more committed than most.Tonight showed what Hibs are at present- a team of strangers failing to communicate. To throw so many new players into a match and hope they’ll gel immediately is optimism. What is worrying is that they look as they they may never gel. And how long can we keep saying ,” It’ll be better when so and so is back”? Maybe we’ll be better when we have less of the ball and others try to attack us but then that opens questions about the defence. Oh dear!

[Smartie]

Henderson was motm, Rocky was decent, Campbell did nothing wrong when he went on.

The way we play relies heavily on getting our fullbacks into advanced positions. They were terrible first half, Miller had (another) nightmare and Cadden repeatedly took the sting out of attacks by having to get the ball back into his right foot.

Doidge just cannot play that system and was anonymous.

The combination of these factors contributed to a very weak first half performance.

I’m really concerned about when some of our arrivals will be up to speed, and even though it’s early days I wonder if they ever will. Miller and Kenneh wanted too much time on the ball. Tavares was terrible after his beautiful first touch and created nowt. Bojang is raw - obviously has strong physical attributes but looks miles from being ready for 1st team football.

The rest of them weren’t good enough last season and badly needed a bit of quality to help them out.

It all looks a bit bleak, however - Youan coming in could be the glue that holds the front line together. Getting Cadden into RB saw a huge difference tonight, he’s clearly a first pick at RB. We know that at LB we should have the reliable Stevenson unless the Croatian lad is even better than him.

Some minor tweaks might make a fairly abject unit into a pretty decent one.

Plenty to be concerned about though.

[NAE NOOKIE]

It was an abysmal performance, even if Morton did have 9 men behind the ball most of the game our attempts to score were nothing short of woeful, I cant recall the Morton keeper having a meaningful save to make in the entire 90 minutes, with anything that might have troubled him going wide of the target.

Marshall ... Nothing to do apart from pick 4 penalties out of the net and his distribution was good.

Miller .... Like the OP I am beginning to wonder if the guy has the quality we need, at least he nearly scored which is more than you can say for our forwards.

Rocky .... To be fair he didn't do a lot wrong and got onto the end of a couple of corners ... this was a failure you couldn't pin on the defence.

Porto .... Got caught wrong side, again, and wasn't anything like the threat at corners he can be ... as for his penalty.

Cadden .... Left back ... WTF !!!

Kenneh .... This kid is just too slow on the ball, he seems to take an age to make his mind up and then plays the pass he could and should have after his first touch instead of his third .... looking at that I'm scratching my head as to how he got into the Leeds first team squad considering they were all about moving the ball quickly.

Newell .... Got about the park ok, but he just doesn't make things happen.

Henderson .... I actually thought he at least looked like he appreciated that Hibs needed to get something out of this game, the pick of our midfield by a mile ... from an admittedly low bar.

McGeady ... He did a few things right which included a couple of balls across the box which deserved better, but too often he held onto the ball far too long and more than once chose to ignore a decent run by a Hibs forward in his obsession to get to the bye line or take the ball for a walk along the 18 yard line.

Doidge ... Looks like he couldn't score in a barrel of fannies, unless we are playing a team one up from the pub league.

Melkersen ... As the OP said, makes some good runs ... any coach watching him would say 'this kid has good movement' ... imagine if he had players around him who had the brains to play the ball to him ... he doesn't.

SUBS:

Campbell ... far from the worst player on the park, which doesn't say a lot for some of his team mates.

Tavares ... Looked like he might be a tricky customer, but he was second to practically any 50/50 ball that came his way ... that's probably just rustiness though so I'm not too bothered by it at this stage.

Bojang .... Cant think of anything to say good or bad.

The ref .... Can moan all we want about him, but if we are at the stage of blaming the officials for a home defeat to Morton we are in serious serious trouble.

The Manager. I can appreciate that he has a headache with not being able to play the team he might want to what with work permit problems and some possible first picks unavailable through injury ( it's last season all over again FFS ) ..... But nothing, and I mean nothing, is an excuse for failing to beat a division 1 team at any venue and a Championship team at ER .... the 'alleged' quality he had available to him last night should have been more than capable of beating Morton, and if they aren't WTF are they doing at this club? He must know that the buck stops with him in the end.

Ron Gordon .... I've been extremely defensive of him in the past, but this League cup mess has to tell him it's time to stop pissing about hoovering up could be's from around Europe and give the manager the funds to get us at least ( AT LEAST ) two proven players into this squad. As things stand this is looking like a relegation waiting to happen and the league hasn't even bloody well kicked off yet .... we have Hearts in two games time and anybody at Easter Road who thinks we have a cat in hells chance of beating them with performances like this shouldn't be anywhere near a professional football club ..... FFS, at this moment in time I would celebrate a draw in that game as if we had won the league so utterly unconvinced am I by this squad of players.

I want my mum :boo hoo:

[Unseen work]

I could say a million things about tonight but am I the only one that never feels like well score from a cross?

It seems we chuck loads into the box and never even look like scoring

Hopefully pace out wide and upfront will mean we get in behind teams more and have More cut backs.

[Dazzjw1875]

For me first half again very poor Cadden at LB can't happen again he's wasted there! Mcgeady so annoying trying the same thing over and over the Morton player must've loved playing against him.. second half a bit better ut still nowhere good enough. Best players for me Rocky, hendo and Marshall for his sweeper keeper moments. The rest need a serious reality check.

[Mikey_1875]

I could say a million things about tonight but am I the only one that never feels like well score from a cross?

It seems we chuck loads into the box and never even look like scoring

Hopefully pace out wide and upfront will mean we get in behind teams more and have More cut backs.

I think it’s easy for defenders to organise and deal with our crosses when there is a complete lack of variety in how we attack. Unless we can get Henderson on the ball in between the lines the majority of our play is just feed the ball wide to Cadden and watch him swing in an aimless cross into box. That problem pre-dates Johnson to be fair.

We need to be a lot more creative in breaking down these teams however I couldn’t believe that none of our strikers gambled on that McGeady cross 5 minutes from the end.

[FilipinoHibs]

I thought Rocky and Henderson were head and shoulders above the rest of the outfield players.

Whilst Campbell did play better than he has, still never contributed anything of real note for me.

He gives away needless fouls when we are chasing games. Handing poxession and time to our opponents.

[Shrekko]

He gives away needless fouls when we are chasing games. Handing poxession and time to our opponents.

Although I support Campbell more than most, he is starting to infuriate me when he does this. It's either very naïve, or a selfish attempt to make it obvious he is still giving his all - either way it's totally ridiculous.

We seem to have quite a few players who just don't seem to have a clue what they should be doing at this level. Mellkerson is another who looks like he possibly has talent but I have zero faith that he'll use the ball wisely when he has it.

[Smartie]

I could say a million things about tonight but am I the only one that never feels like well score from a cross?

It seems we chuck loads into the box and never even look like scoring

Hopefully pace out wide and upfront will mean we get in behind teams more and have More cut backs.

I think there’s 30 goals + a season waiting for someone who can figure out how to time a run.

Probably the correct central striker but might be any of the front 4.

[Hiber-nation]

Agree with the report but we're in trouble when mom is given to a laddie who came on and made an effort and that was about it.

[Tambo]

Henderson easy the best Hibs player on that pitch for 90 minutes.

[SideBurns]

A fair if damning assessment of last night, John. Anyone not at the game who heard we had drawn 1-1 at home to Morton might assume it was just one of these nights when their keeper had a stormer and their goal led a charmed life, lots of near misses, shots coming off the woodwork. But the truth is we created virtually nothing.

[PeeJay]

Another honest account of the game - didn't think Morton were that good, but we looked so slow, sluggish and lacking in any sustained dynamic and wiliness going forward - there's an edge in mentality and physicality missing to this group of players that does not auger well for the league season - not sure about Campbell being MoM, but he had one of his better games for us ...

[Tambo]

I said in the match thread just after full time about are we not able to play one or two touch football?

I know results is what matters in football( we even struggle for results recently) but I honestly can't remember the last time we played some decent football? The time we went 3-0 up at home to Hamilton before it ended up 3-2 or Maloney's 1-3 win away to Dundee United?

[Smartie]

I said in the match thread just after full time about are we not able to play one or two touch football?

I know results is what matters in football( we even struggle for results recently) but I honestly can't remember the last time we played some decent football? The time we went 3-0 up at home to Hamilton before it ended up 3-2 or Maloney's 1-3 win away to Dundee United?

I suggested Marshall in midfield on the match day thread as he seems to be the only one capable or interested in moving the ball quickly.

At that point it was in jest.

[BILLYHIBS]

Thanks for posting Jonnyboy

Your first sentence summed up last night

We need at least three experienced established household names centre forward midfield and centre back to save our season and LJ’s job

Not gonna waste anymore time and effort pointing out the shortfalls of the current incumbents

It is now or never

The boy Youan got to be worth a start on Sunday

[GreenCastle]

Only a few games in and this has got worse than last season:

I agree with a lot of the posts above about the mess we are in.

Poor recruitment and the spine of the team..

Marshall
Centre back
Centre midfield
Centre forward

Until we add what we actually need we will continue to struggle.

Also JDH and Stevenson injured already ? Not like we should rely on them but still another 2 injuries.

[snedzuk]

Great summary but if Clyde beat Falkirk then do we not win the group?

[Paulie Walnuts]

Great summary but if Clyde beat Falkirk then do we not win the group?

Yeah.

[JimBHibees]

It was an abysmal performance, even if Morton did have 9 men behind the ball most of the game our attempts to score were nothing short of woeful, I cant recall the Morton keeper having a meaningful save to make in the entire 90 minutes, with anything that might have troubled him going wide of the target.

Marshall ... Nothing to do apart from pick 4 penalties out of the net and his distribution was good.

Miller .... Like the OP I am beginning to wonder if the guy has the quality we need, at least he nearly scored which is more than you can say for our forwards.

Rocky .... To be fair he didn't do a lot wrong and got onto the end of a couple of corners ... this was a failure you couldn't pin on the defence.

Porto .... Got caught wrong side, again, and wasn't anything like the threat at corners he can be ... as for his penalty.

Cadden .... Left back ... WTF !!!

Kenneh .... This kid is just too slow on the ball, he seems to take an age to make his mind up and then plays the pass he could and should have after his first touch instead of his third .... looking at that I'm scratching my head as to how he got into the Leeds first team squad considering they were all about moving the ball quickly.

Newell .... Got about the park ok, but he just doesn't make things happen.

Henderson .... I actually thought he at least looked like he appreciated that Hibs needed to get something out of this game, the pick of our midfield by a mile ... from an admittedly low bar.

McGeady ... He did a few things right which included a couple of balls across the box which deserved better, but too often he held onto the ball far too long and more than once chose to ignore a decent run by a Hibs forward in his obsession to get to the bye line or take the ball for a walk along the 18 yard line.

Doidge ... Looks like he couldn't score in a barrel of fannies, unless we are playing a team one up from the pub league.

Melkersen ... As the OP said, makes some good runs ... any coach watching him would say 'this kid has good movement' ... imagine if he had players around him who had the brains to play the ball to him ... he doesn't.

SUBS:

Campbell ... far from the worst player on the park, which doesn't say a lot for some of his team mates.

Tavares ... Looked like he might be a tricky customer, but he was second to practically any 50/50 ball that came his way ... that's probably just rustiness though so I'm not too bothered by it at this stage.

Bojang .... Cant think of anything to say good or bad.

The ref .... Can moan all we want about him, but if we are at the stage of blaming the officials for a home defeat to Morton we are in serious serious trouble.

The Manager. I can appreciate that he has a headache with not being able to play the team he might want to what with work permit problems and some possible first picks unavailable through injury ( it's last season all over again FFS ) ..... But nothing, and I mean nothing, is an excuse for failing to beat a division 1 team at any venue and a Championship team at ER .... the 'alleged' quality he had available to him last night should have been more than capable of beating Morton, and if they aren't WTF are they doing at this club? He must know that the buck stops with him in the end.

Ron Gordon .... I've been extremely defensive of him in the past, but this League cup mess has to tell him it's time to stop pissing about hoovering up could be's from around Europe and give the manager the funds to get us at least ( AT LEAST ) two proven players into this squad. As things stand this is looking like a relegation waiting to happen and the league hasn't even bloody well kicked off yet .... we have Hearts in two games time and anybody at Easter Road who thinks we have a cat in hells chance of beating them with performances like this shouldn't be anywhere near a professional football club ..... FFS, at this moment in time I would celebrate a draw in that game as if we had won the league so utterly unconvinced am I by this squad of players.

I want my mum :boo hoo:

Pretty accurate post.