Hibs 3 Saints 0 League Table Here
Team: Roy, Lynch, Forsyth, Murray, Weir, Dods, Maher,
JR, Sammy, Kiegan, Kane
Subs Cuthbert, Jones, Dasovic, Falconer, McCluskey
Cast your minds back all of 2 weeks when we walked out of the ground believing that we'd finally turned the corner and could still battle our way out of the relegation spot. Aye well it was a nice dream while it lasted which was about all of one minute today. 1200 Saints fans backing their team to the hilt and guess what? Yup we fucked it up big time with THE worst performance of the season - a team that just couldn't get their act together, pass the ball or even give the vague impression of being interested in staying up.
As expected Roy took over from Cuthbert in goals whilst Weir managed to pass a late fitness test. Meanwhile Tommy was posted missing and Flash took his place in an otherwise unchanged line-up. I don't even know how to describe the game - part of me says I should try to cover the detail as much as possible but threes an emotional side that needs to let rip so let's get that out of the way first. STARK SHOULD GO NOW !!! I remember the last time I was at Easter Rd and saw a managers career end - tonight is just as bad. Billy Stark just doesn't have what it takes to either motivate or improve Saints.
That's better - now to the game. I'd like to say we started well but to be honest we were never in it and within 40 seconds Hibs had torn us apart on the left side with Lynch and Dods left standing and allowing Murray in unmarked to put a low drive past Ludo. And whilst we can complain all we want about Rowbotham and his inability to book Murray for making, shall we say, aggressive gestures in front of the away fans as part of his celebration the truth is it just showed how much hungrier Hibs were compared to Saints.
We tried to get back into the game and a minute later nearly equalised when a long cross from Hartley found Kiegan whose volley was just over the bar. But that was it from Saints. The midfield were 2nd (actually 3rd or 4th) to every ball, the defence looked OK in the middle but Lynch and Forsyth were having a nightmare and up front Sammy was lost and Kiegan....well Keigan probably managed to get us relegated. Hibs had us under pressure all the way and although the diving antics of de la Cruz went unpunished (along with Freddy "Big Nose" Arpignon),
Saints were just lost. The game itself was dire enough with little in the way of chances. Hartley managed to get on the end of a long ball into the box in 16 minutes but his shot was well saved and then after Kano picked up the first booking for a foul on Jack and we pushed our luck watching Lynch try and pretend he's nothing more than an on-loan reserve player, the game almost threatened to spring to life. Maher (woefully underused) played a great 1-2 with Kiegan in the 26th minute only to see his eventual shot deflected over the bar. Then 3 minutes later Murray was booked for a scythe on Kiegan. But within a minute Kiegan picked up a yellow card for an alleged dive in the box - probably the moment the game turned.
Five minutes later and a Flash free-kick into the box found Kiegan - his shot was blocked but came back to Murray and his long-range effort ricocheted off the post. Unfortunately that was the last we saw of Saints as an attacking force. Hibs 2nd came in the 38th minute. After Forsyth had been turned several times they won a corner. O'Neils effort was sent into the box, knocked back for Murray to rise unmarked and head past Roy - although the Saints keeper managed to help the ball into the net.
Any hopes we had were dashed two minutes later when Kiegan appeared to raise a high foot. Cue a 2nd yellow and subsequent red card. I'm not making any comment as to his guilt but anyone who is on a booking already (whether deserved or not) is just being an idiot to put such a challenge in. Mind you the Saints mindset didn't exactly undergo a revolution with Stark unwilling to change the tactics or put another striker on - I mean we're only one man and 2 goals down and getting humped.
Half-time eventually came although by then Hibs had had a 3rd goal chalked off for offside, Weir had smacked Jack in the face off the ball and Hartley had had several fouls against him most of which even he didn't deserve. So the 2nd half started (with the 1200 number already diminished) and with no fucking changes in the line-up or tactics. We did get a laugh early on though when de la Cruz was finally booked on his 4th dive (strange similar rules don't apply when you're name is Parker). Ludo made a goot save early on as well from Brebner who had replaced Arpignon.
Five minutes into the half Sammy (who looked crap basically) limped off to be replaced by Jones but with Saints playing 4-4-1 he didn't really have a chance. Eight minutes later Nick came on but it was Maher who went off - bit surprising that since it was Kane who had looked totally shite. From then on we were chasing shadows.
No doubt the stats will show that we had some chances but the killer came in the 67th minute when a Hibs clearance found Dods who slipped on his arse, letting O'Connor run the length of the half and finish off brilliantly with a drive which seemed to go through Roy to make it 3-0. The 1200 depleted even more.
Falconer came on with 10 minutes to go in place of Forsyth. Brebner and Jones picked up bookings for diving and stamping respectively and we managed a couple of token soft efforts which were easily saved but will no doubt make Stark's stats from the game look a bit less humiliating.
The final whistle summed it up - there were still 3/4 of the Saints support there but only Hartley, Jones and my MoM Weir bothered to come over to acknowledge us properly. The rest just skulked off along with their manager.
I'm not even that angry that we now seem to be sliding towards that inevitable relegation spot. Nope, I just feel let down.
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| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Points |
| Celtic | 30 | 27 | 2 | 1 | 72 | 14 | 83 |
| Rangers | 29 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 66 | 23 | 67 |
| Livingston | 29 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 39 | 29 | 47 |
| Aberdeen | 30 | 13 | 5 | 12 | 42 | 41 | 44 |
| Kilmarnock | 30 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 36 | 38 | 41 |
| Hearts | 30 | 11 | 6 | 13 | 40 | 40 | 39 |
| Dunfermline | 30 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 35 | 50 | 37 |
| Dundee United | 29 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 29 | 50 | 32 |
| Dundee | 29 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 29 | 45 | 31 |
| Motherwell | 30 | 8 | 6 | 16 | 39 | 54 | 30 |
| Hibs | 30 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 37 | 48 | 28 |
| Saints | 30 | 4 | 4 | 22 | 20 | 51 | 16 |
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