Myths, mysteries and Hibernian Football Club . . . Club – The Recap

In a dystopian future, one which is governed by a FIFA ruled by a Sepp Blatter controlled cyborg, where Heart of Midlothian are multiple Champions League winners – actually this may be a utopian future – there will still be the great myths, mysteries and legends of today. The Loch Ness monster, Aliens, life on Mars, Atlantis, Hibernian Football Club winning a crucial game.

Scottish Cup finals, relegation play-off matches, promotion play-off matches. No matter the challenge, the obstacle, Hibs are entirely predictable. Fail, lose, embarrass, self-destruct in all matter of ways. For those of a neutral persuasion they are often the perfect ailment for all matter of ills. Feeling down? Just watch the Hibees. They’ll have you chuckling like a baby playing with a fork (babies are stupid).

Sunday fell into the crucial category. Alan Stubbs called it a must-not-lose game. The way Rangers have progressed under Mark Warburton it was a must-win game if the Easter Road side have any serious ambitions for automatic promotion. Mind games had started before the game. Albeit mind games in the lower reaches of Scottish football would make Beavis and Butthead wince. Yet, remarkably Stubbs’s comments appeared to work.

Warburton has preached his plan A philosophy. If it is failing, do it better. Comments like that always make me cringe. It sounds like something which should be written on a picture of a waterfall and uploaded to Facebook and Instagram by a rotund female feeling enlightened before she gobbles down a box of McCain microwaveable chips. Yet he changed formation, anticipating the numbers and quality Hibs have in attack and the state of his own defenders. Rangers lined up in a 3-5-2 system, while Hibs were a compact 4-4-2.

Each side had their moment of relief in the early stages as Lewis Stevenson downed Andres Iniesta Jason Holt in the box but neither John Beaton or the linesman decided it was a penalty. This happened moments before Dominic Ball tried to scissor John McGinn mid-air. A yellow card was his punishment when it should have been the red.

It was clear from the outset that Hibs were happy to allow Rangers to have easy possession in defence before sprinting into a press as soon as the ball was with the Rangers midfield men in the Hibs half. Both Jason Cummings and Dominque Malonga dropped goal side of the ball when Rangers spread their three centre halves to make sure no easy passes were played forward. The four midfielders would then aggressively hunt the ball. Rangers were simply unable to get Martin Waghorn, dropping off the front, and Barrie McKay, playing as the most advanced midfielder, into dangerous positions.

When the ball was won Hibs were direct in their approach. Liam Henderson and John McGinn would spring forward or if it was on the ball would be knocked in behind for Cummings to chase. Despite the security of three centre halves, a vulnerability remained in defence for Rangers. And it showed in the opening goal. Tactically there was little to analyse because Cummings produced a Leigh Griffiths-esque ‘something out of nothing’ powerful but accurate strike from distance. The issue was that Danny Wilson was too eager to muscle Cummings from the ball or simply nick it from him. He was shrugged off and left wrong footed.

While Hibs were largely the better side in the first half without prising Rangers open, they could have went into the break level but for a tremendous reflex stop from Mark Oxley. Unsurprisingly Lee Wallace and James Tavernier, both playing more attacking roles as wing-backs, linked; the former playing in the latter after Stevenson was dragged infield as the defence shuffled to stop the rampaging run of Wallace.

Wallace would go on to terrorise Hibs at the start of the second half, levelling the scores in the 47^th minute, although it appears Darren McGregor has been given the own goal. The home side were caught up field when Rangers sprung a direct attack; Waghorn and Tavernier combining before Wallace was brought into play. With David Gray tucking in narrow, Wallace had sufficient time to set himself before firing at goal.

Stubbs was smart replacing Henderson with James Keatings as he struggled to support Gray in thwarting the threat of Wallace. By this point Rangers had switched to 4-3-3 meaning Gray and Henderson now had direct opponents. Henderson struggled with the defensive requirements. On the other side McGinn and Stevenson combined excellently to combat Tavernier with Nathan Oduwa looking to move infield. The one time Tavernier bundled his way through he adeptly set up Waghorn but again Oxley stood tall with the rebound being diverted onto the bar.

Containment now featured as the highest priority for Hibs before veering forward if the chance presented itself. It did when McGinn picked up possession on the edge of the box and speared a beautiful ball onto the chest of Cummings. Rob Kiernan got too close and Cummings, with a cushion for a chest, took the ball down beautifully before failing to beat Wes Foderingam one v one. The attack petered out when Malonga picked up possession. The lanky forward had a decent first half but as the game progressed he was taking more time on the ball and just getting in the road, like that one player at 5s you only pass to at the last resort.

Then came what could prove to be a defining moment in the direction of the Championship title. On the podcast Foderingham was criticised for not catching McGinn’s free-kick. But the height it was at there was a chance he could have carried the ball against the bar. He took the safety option of tipping the ball over. Warburton talked up his ‘keeper as someone with the potential to play for England. I mean if Rob Green, Scott Carson and Ben Foster can, then . . . Foderingham simply followed in the footsteps of England number 1 Joe Hart by waking a royal Noel Hunt of a cross to allow Paul Hanlon a free header to clinch the three points.

There was still one moment to come in the match. The moments you want to see as a neutral. Handbags, pushing, moaning, referees trying in vain to split players up like an apathetic teacher on playground watch. Fraser Fyvie was lucky not to see red card for a lunging challenge, studs showing, on McKay before becoming embroiled in a pushing match with Waghorn – another who was lucky to escape an early bath. Their pushing resembled the fight in the Friends episode with the bullies. They were reluctant to get the haymakers out. Pussies.

It was a fine match. Good performances on either side, differing formations and styles, better entertainment than the dross we have been served up from down south. There was a modicum of bitterness in Warburton’s post-match interview with regards to his comments about one team in it in the second half. Maybe Hibs were happy to play the way they did? If there was one team in it then when your keeper opted to pay tribute to goalkeepers of Hibs past there would not have been a Hibs player to take advantage. His comments would have been for the benefit of his players to make them re-focus their energies on the way they have played and reinforce the philosophy which has taken them to the top of the league.

Hibs and Stubbs displayed different facets to their game which highlighted a steel not always associated with the Leithers. Stubbs wants his team to dominate possession and therefore dominate the game. He was pragmatic enough to know Rangers are possibly better at that aspect, however their weakness is dealing with direct play, getting players one on one with Rangers’ centre backs and exposing them down the flanks – ie Warburton’s back three. Hibs looked to release their strikers quickly while trying to turnover the ball when Rangers had players high up the park.

Fraser Fyvie was ferocious out of possession, Lewis Stevenson defended as well as he has done in his career but while every Hibs player contributed, there was one clear stand-out. John McGinn was the jewel that sparkled brightest. He has always been thought of as a diamond, one rough around the edges. Raw and in need of polishing. In Stubbs he may have found the perfect polisher. I mean it can’t get much worse than Gary Teale and Tommy Craig. Without great surprise he struggled under both as he was moved around. With a four-year deal he has stability and when he is moved around at Hibs there is a purpose about it and clear trust in him to perform no matter where he is stationed.

An all-round midfielder, he was radiant on the left. Driving forward with skill, strength and power, he was a constant threat. There were pirouettes, jinking, ball mastery and a range of passing. As Scott Allan spends his free weekends not getting a haircut, McGinn has been helping Hibs forget the player which inadvertently had a hand in their poor start which has seen the Easer Road side making up ground ever since.

With Cummings on fire, a defence playing with resilience and solidity, the midfield exhibiting energy and vigour and the stardust provided by McGinn Hibs will feel they could be in for a special season. But Rangers are still the level and, rightly, still the favourites for the league.

As one title race sparkled another had been slowly extinguished in recent weeks, coming to a head at Celtic Park on Saturday afternoon. After being showered with praise in the opening weeks, and rightly so, Aberdeen have now not won in six games. The 3-1 defeat to Celtic left them trailing the Hoops by seven points.

It was an unusual game. Aberdeen were the better side for periods of the first half. Niall McGinn and Jonny Hayes caused an abundance of trouble down the flanks. Kieran Tierney initially struggled against McGinn before eventually getting to grips with the Northern Irishman and winning the battle. Hayes however fired in a number of high quality crosses. Adam Rooney had already flicked two efforts past the post and over the bar, after getting across the Celtic centre halves, when Hayes whipped a cross right onto his head but Rooney could not get the ideal direction as it narrowly flew past the post.

Graham Shinnie and Ryan Jack had been holding their own against Scott Brown and Nir Bitton but Rooney’s chance coupled with the earlier injury to Andrew Considine helped swing the game in Celtic’s favour. And just when the first half was edging towards a goal less conclusion, Celtic’s clutch performer rose, literally and figuratively, to the occasion. A loose touch by Bitton tempted Hayes out of position but the rangy Israeli managed to skip the challenge and play in Tierney who would have otherwise been tracked by Hayes. The youngsters wonderful cross found the space between Ash Taylor and Paul Quinn. In that space? Leigh Griffiths, who planted a wonderful header back across Danny Ward into the corner.

It is not so much his significant leap, but the timing off his jumps and then the power and accuracy he generates. Griffiths had earlier been denied by Ward after finding himself one v one. He is prone to lashing at such chances when he has time. He seems to be at his best when players are around him and his concentration has to be peak. He has developed into a pretty special striker at Celtic, changing his game from someone who picks the ball up deep and bastards a shot at goal, to someone who plays between the centre backs and full-backs, looking for that half yard of space.

The game was done when Ash Taylor ludicrously dived in on Kris Commons just inside the box before James Forrest very adeptly added a third as Aberdeen’s defence wasn’t so much at sixes and sevens but Younes Kabouls and John O’Sheas. Forrest is another who has been pushed into another level by Ronny Deila, slowly ridding himself of his joke figure reputation.

As for Aberdeen they were lucky not to lose by more in the end, Rooney’s header a mere consolation as Celtic’s defence opted to rest earlier than expected for Molde. Derek McInnes’s side are in a rut which they need to get out of. They have Dundee United before the international break. It was suggested on the Podcast that they just a team bonding session. May I suggest all the players and coaching staff get together with their wives and girlfriends, pop their keys in a jar and start swinging.

Wait a minute! Wait. A. Fucking. Minute. What have we here? That noise? That’s the Gorgie bandwagon roaring full steam ahead. A 4-0 away win. An incredibly comfortable 4-0 away win has lifted the Gorgie Greats into second place. Cigars and sombreros all round. Okay, the win came against the most pathetic of Partick Thistle performances; the Jags effectively giving up the ghost after Hearts took a two goal lead.

Early talk of players of the year or the best XI so far this season would see Aberdeen players feature heavily in discussion. As for those from the West End of Edinburgh there hasn’t been the universal (in terms of Scottish football) recognition for the likes of Igor Rossi, Sam Nicholson and Osman Sow. But they have helped the Jambornios into second place without the team putting together a spell of scintillating football which was a hallmark of the Championship win. Robbie Neilson is often bemoaning the fact that the team haven’t played as well as they could have in the post-match press conference.

At Firhill on Saturday Hearts did not have to play to a high standard to collect the three points. For large parts of the first half the two teams were even before Sow reacted quickest to a parried header – which looked to be heading wide – steering it back across goal for Juanma to poke Hearts into the lead after Thistle’s defence stood and gazed.

Against Celtic in the League Cup Sow and Juanma started together up front but showed little signs of a partnership. On Saturday it was completely different as they worked in tandem and Juanma soon repaid Sow by drifting to the right and playing a pass to the awkward Swede who bundled his way to a goal. Sow has been terrific of late, whether as a striker or a wide forward. His combination of pace, skill and strength beguiles defenders, despite striking a similar resemblance to an Air Dancer If he adds a modicum of ruthlessness and aggressiveness then Hearts have a top quality player on their hands.

Full steam ahead with hope in the heart and a full-on rager in the boxers.

Unlucky, Gary Locke. And you know what? I mean that sincerely. Kilmarnock were hard done by in their 1-0 home defeat to Motherwell. They controlled the game for large periods although without really testing Connor Ripley.

Josh Magennis? Superb. He bullied the Motherwell centre halves. Every ball that was knocked to him was either brought under control and given to a team mate or if he was unable to get to the ball he made sure it wasn’t easy for Stephen McManus and Kennedy – it has to be said Killie had a tendency to knock it long. For someone who looked so uncomfortable on a football pitch for so long, he looks slick. Everything he does is with a purpose. He is helped by Rory McKenzie, Kallum Higginbotham and Greg Kiltie buzzing around him.

Higginbotham is beginning to thrive in the number 10 position with freedom to drift. It was an infuriating afternoon in terms of end product from the ex-Thistle man but he was constantly involves which is not always the case when stationed wide.

As for Motherwell. Yeah, they won. A smash and grab would be too harsh a term for what they produced but they certainly came to contain and counter. Kevin McHattie and Mark O’Hara, the latter especially, struggled with the pace and directness of Well’s wide men. They were always a threat in the wide areas and had one period at the start of the second half on top. The goal itself was scrappy and you could see the reactions of both sets of players to realise Killie were stunned they had lost and Well ecstatic that they had won a game of football.

SPORTSCENE. Seriously, what’s the fucking point? Not only did they put Hamilton v St Johnstone rather than Partick Thistle v Heart of Midlothian in the stats bar after the latter game but they then insulted us with the goals of three games. Just the goals. Three games, nine goals and a sending off in the time it takes me to ‘enjoy myself’ to mature BBWs. Not long, man. Not long.

I have an idea. Just come out and say ‘we couldn’t give a tiny rat’s arse about the output’. Or at least an explanation regarding the restrictions put on them in terms of how much footage they can show and the thinking behind their decisions. Decisions which included shoehorning as much Halloween nonsense into the programme as possible. It is a shite day. A day where you can wear a Gary Glitter costume and grope slutty nurses, maids and felines without them knowing who you are. In the Hearts highlights they randomly cut to a pumpkin at the corner flag. Nonsense.

People care strongly about Sportscene judging by comments on social media. Unfortunately those that have the power to make the show good/lift any restrictions appear not to care. The show comes out on Sunday night, more than 24 hours AFTER most of the games. It shouldn’t come across as a rush-job. There shouldn’t be the number of amateurish mistakes that are made on a weekly basis.

St Johnstone are braw, eh? Years of being a solid, structured, pragmatic outfit has given way to goals. Steven MacLean wasn’t risked on the artificial pitch. No worry, Michael O’Halloran was moved infield to support Graham Cummins and they terrorised the Hamilton backline, missing the dominant presence of Lucas. Cummins and O’Halloran linked twice either side of the half for a goal apiece with Cummins eventually getting a brace in the 4-2. There is every chance he will finish the season with a double-double (at least 10 goals and 10 assists). O’Halloran could well join him in that regard as well.

As for Hamilton, despite their fight back, it was clear there was a gaping hole in the backline without Lucas. Martin Canning came in and joined Jesus Garcia Tena in having a nightmare. Tena’s set piece prowess and technique deflect from that fact he isn’t that good a centre half.

Dundee and Inverness Caledonian Thistle are very hit and miss. Both are too inconsistent at the moment to trouble the European places but should be battling it out for a place in the top six. Dundee’s attackers have went off the boil after they exploded into the season.

ICT were a shambles for most part of the Highland Derby during the week. Fighting back from a goal and a man down will please John Hughes no end, confirming that he does indeed have a ‘good bunch of lads’. That Ryan Christie dive however? Terrible decision from the referee. Smart play from Christie after a penalty shout had been turned down seconds previously.

Dundee United 1 Ross County 0.

Don’t worry, folks. We won’t be slumming it too often by including the hammer throwing leagues of lower league Scottish football. This will be maintained as a Premiership recap going forward. Well, until Rangers or Hibs embarrass themselves. Which, let’s face it, fingers fucking crossed.