The majority of the squad headed north on Friday for this foreign adventure that represented our biggest game of the season and a chance to head in to the last four of the competition that would have been unchartered territory for us- unlike the city of Edinburgh where we were drawn away at the same stage of the competition last year.
We were most surprised to be greeted with glorious sunshine and an almost full field of grass and all in all a pretty decent playing surface. A few lads travelled up on an early train to give us a decent squad; one we felt more than capable of picking up a win and that pure Scottish air must have set something off because we began like a house on fire.
Gaz was pulling all the midfield strings, JV was having a field day on the
wing, Jammer looked dangerous on the right and the Hibs defence could not cope with Steve’s height and aerial ability. The skirt wearing folk didn’t know what had hit them and we soon forged an early lead. Jammer drifted over to the right and floated a ball up top to Burnsy. He controlled before spotting a gap in the bottom corner and finished superbly. 1-0 and that stopped that wee chavs from heckling on the banking.
We continued to press and had further good opportunities with Jebu missing his kick with the goal at his mercy and also Jammer spanked a volley over from 7 yards out. The game then turned with one kick and unfortunately it was on Gaz’s shin. It was a particularly bad challenge and the Hibs player was allowed to get away with what was a potential leg breaker. A couple of minutes later after a couple more challenges on him Gaz seeked his own retribution and after a bit of handbags Gaz and the jock was ordered from the pitch.
This disrupted our whole play as it was Gaz that was pulling the strings and also it enabled Hibs to see that we would react the physicality.
Hibs were soon level as they broke in the area and a toe poke sailed in to Sharky’s net. It was to get worse for us as the home team took a lead that they barely deserved just before half time. A mix up between goalkeeper and striker saw a throw land at the feet of a Hibs player. He headed straight for goal and with our players not aware of what was going on he slammed it past Shark to make it 2-1. Easy, easy, easy were the chants from the banking.
More decisions were going against us and as we took the field for the second half a lot of players were riled and wary of any more challenges. That said we started off well in the second half and kept Hibs at bay. We were inches away from being level when Jebu was put through but his drive clipped the top of the bar. From the resulting goal kick a defensive error saw Hibs go through on goal. Their striker rounded Shark’s feet and shot for goal. However the angle was too acute and the ball flashed across the face of goal. When the ball had passed the goal and gone out of the play a Hibs player fell heavier than William Wallace did when Old Long Shanks got him under a challenge from Paul Elliott. “Penalty” said the referee with the dubious bleached blonde hair. “Cheers Dad” said one of the Hibs players. “I’m not being linesman anymore” said Grist.
The penno was converted to give the home team a comfortable lead.
We just couldn’t get going then. We didn’t use our wide players and we created only half chances. The game was put out of our reach not long after when a weak header from our corner was palmed in to the net by Shark. The natives on the sidelines were going barmy. Being Scottish they were not used to such a goal fest.
Enter the long haired one. A few sly kicks and the odd conventional word in a sentence of expletives and it was exit the long haired one. He made Rab C Nesbitt look like he spoke Queen’s english!
Hibs did threaten more but couldn’t get another and it was us that next troubled the scorers. Mark M, shifted up front to try and get us back in the game got one after a scramble in the area. Too little too late.
So the final whistle blew (some might say it was the first time that the ref blew when he was supposed to) and the game ended on a sour note for some and in major disappointment for others. We went back to the pub and exchanged pleasantries and it was all very nice before we split up. Some went off to get pissed, some went home and others went to explore the fair city of
Despite the result we all had a cracking time but next year we’re just going to toss the bleeding coin!! 