The occasion seemed to get to some of us and we struggled to keep the ball and soon went behind. A long ball over the top was unbelievably missed by Shark in the net and the Hibs striker was allowed the easiest of tap ins. We responded well and played some nice stuff and soon levelled. A nice passing move came to a head when Gaz sprayed a lovely pass out to Jammer who snook in behind the last man to finish well first time. We continued to negate a physical Hibs team and soon took the lead with a carbon copy of the first goal with Gaz supplying Jammer.
We couldn't sustain our lead for long though as it was more errors that actually saw us going in to the break behind. First a loose pass in the centre circle was intercepted and the Hibs playing was allowed to run through our defence and net. Then Sharky had another moment he won't be pleased that we're reminding him of as from an unchallenged corner he could do no more than flap the ball in to the back of the net.
At half time we spoke about needing to relax and starting positively with the wind and slope in our favour. This didn't seem to work as within minutes Sharky once again consulted his ‘How Not To Keep Goal' manual and let in a shot that on other days he would have stopped. At 4-2, on past occasions we may have crumbled with a whimper. We're a different class this year though and we responded quickly as after an interchange with JV on the edge of the area, Burnsy turned and hit a shot in to the top corner. This gave us a boost we needed and it quickly became one-way traffic. Burnsy soon found his way through on goal again and finished with the aplomb that we come to expect to make it 4-4! We pushed and pushed but couldn't seem to score again with Burnsy and Gaz going particularly close. Eventually the pressure told and with a great individual goal Burnsy gave us the lead at 5-4 that sparked wild scenes of celebration. So much had happened it seemed that there couldn't be that long left but amazingly there was 25 minutes still to play and with the game going straight to penalties in the event of a draw, we needed another goal.
Hibs were always a threat with their physicality, physicality that spilt over at times and with a few tasty tackles and threats of violence there was the finest selection of handbags this side of Harvey Nicholls on show. Unlike in our last match against them, we kept cool and thanks to another Burnsy goal we got a nice cushion and saw the game out, with, fortunately for us, Shark having no more to do.
It was a sweet result and soon after the draw for the semi finals saw us pulled out against Preston, with the game due to take place at a neutral venue later this month. The game was also a league game so it automatically sent us to the top of the table and with two games in hand and opportunities for any potential overtakers to play their games running out, all things in the Internet Millers garden are rosy.