16/02/2025 – HIBS (H)

A hard fought point against the form team in the league, a shut out, and back in the top 6 with seven games to play until the split.

It sounds good, and not the worst day we’ve had this season by any means, however we were still left with a feeling of disappointment after another home match slipped away we should have won, based on the balance of play.

That said, we have been losing games at home like this 1-0 the length of the season, with Dundee Utd (twice), Motherwell and St. Johnstone all mugging is in the last 15 minutes of matches at home, so it goes without saying NOT LOSING is actually progress on this occasion.

If we’d picked up just one point in each of those matches above as we should have, we’d be sitting in 4th position, 2 points ahead of Dundee Utd with Aberdeen in sight.

We didn’t do this of course, and fans of every club could point to matches like this over the season, but it proves the margins in this league are tiny, and every point gained is very significant in the overall picture, espcially in a season like this, when around 8 or 9 clubs could qualify for Europe and still be relegated as late as this in the campaign.

On Sunday, Zach Hemming recorded his second clean sheet of the league season in his 5th Premiership match since returning to Paisley. Incredibly, this equals the total number of shut-outs managed in the opening 21 matches of the league campaign when Ellery Baclcombe was between the sticks.

Hemming definitely offers a stability between the posts that Balcombe couldn’t yet manage, despite being a splendid shot stopper, and this confidence at the back could be the difference by the end of the season.

The big Englishman was in the wars again on Sunday when he collided with a post, however he had little to do in a match Saints were the better side, but created little to take advantage.

The closest we came to scoring was early in the second half, when Mikael Madron, (again impressing) fed Toyosi Olusanya whose shot was turned out by Jordan Smith in Hibs goal, straight to Mark O’Hara who thundered back an effort that the Hibs man acrobatically turned around the post for a corner.

As far goal scoring chances went, this was as good as it would get, and the Premier Sport TV audience wouldn’t exactly have been glued to their screens so not to miss any of the action, particularly as the referee struggled badly with his decision making the longer the game went on.

This included awarding Hibs a late penalty for the crime of Killian Phillips being hit in the face by the ball. Thankfully, VAR came to Saints rescue, a rare occurrence for sure, and the decision overturned.

Hibs weren’t so lucky when debutant Alassana Menneh lasted just 14 minutes on the park after being introduced in the 71st minute, with his second booking as harsh as the penalty decision was nonsensical.

The division now has a slightly bonkers look to it. Just 11 points separates 3rd placed Aberdeen to Dundee in 11th, and despite sitting in 6th position, just 3 points away from a European football place, we are only 4 points clear of the Dens Park side.

The final seven matches before the split are going to be incredibly important and tight. Saints have a run of difficult fixtures, but in all honesty we have looked more likely to take points from these games than ones we are favourite for, so it might not be to our disadvantage.

Our next fixture is the shortest available in the football league to us in terms of miles travelled, when we visit Rangers, just over the Paisley/Glasgow border.

We haven’t won at Ibrox since our CEO was in secondary school. That’s a long time ago, so long in fact, that back in 1991 when it last happened, Morton were just 3 years without top flight football and Stephen Robinson hadn’t even started his professional playing career yet!

Every bad run is there to be broken however, and its only 6 weeks or so since we beat Rangers in Paisley with a convincing performance. It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to suggest Saints could take something from the match, so if you can, get along and roar on the team.

COYS!

Hibs Players of the Match:

5 points – Alex Gogic

3 points – Mikael Mandron

1 point – Richard Taylor

Check our the Player of the Season race here –

PLAYER OF THE SEASON