Below-par Hibs suffer defeat at Meadowbank

Two quick-fire goals from Partick Thistle saw Hibs suffer a 2-0 defeat at Meadowbank.

The hosts had an abundance of chances but were unable to find the back of the net throughout. Partick soon punished Hibs with two goals within five minutes, 15 minutes before the end of the game. The result comes as a shock after manager Grant Scott managed to put together a good run of form coming into the fixture, but their four-game winning streak has now come to an abrupt end.

“My gut feel right now is real disappointment,” Scott told the Edinburgh Evening News. “We didn’t play badly today but that final part of putting the ball into the net seemed to pass us by. The result is everything and I am very disappointed.

“I’m not sure how the stats will look but I’m sure that they didn’t register a shot on target until they scored. That’s a credit to them, if they get two shots on target and get a 100% record, credit to them. We were poor in the attacking area today and that was the biggest position I am disappointed in.”

Hibs were unable to find the goalscoring touch that they had developed in previous games. Image Credit: Colin Poultney/SWPL

After a scrappy opening exchanges, in-form Jorian Baucom had the first real opportunity as the striker pounced on a mistake from the Partick back-line before firing wide of the target. Hibs continued to grow into the game with Abbie Ferguson and Tegan Bowie causing multiple problems for the visitors down the flanks. Bowie should have put the hosts ahead after she spun around the Partick defender and fired her shot straight at the ‘keeper. Ferguson was next to go close as she managed to find the space to shoot but the effort was once again an easy save for Megan Cunningham.

Brilliant build-up play from the Hibees saw Baucom escape her marker and smash the ball onto the top of the bar at the start of the second half. The bar came to Partick’s saviour again just before the hour mark as Leah Eddie blasted a long-range effort off its corner. Ferguson should have put Hibs ahead after Bowie played the winger one-on-one but a brilliant last-ditch challenge was enough to stop her from releasing the trigger. Partick got themselves ahead 71 minutes in as the ball found its way to Lucy Sinclair who made no mistake inside the box. Partick then doubled their lead five minutes later. Hibs made a mess of a corner which allowed Sinclair to tap the ball into the net from four yards. Ferguson almost got Hibs back into the game late on as Cunningham touched her effort onto the bar before Bowie saw another effort saved by the ‘keeper. Partick managed to hold out from here to take home all three points.

“I’d be more worried if we lost the game and we hadn’t had chances, we didn’t have a lot of the ball, didn’t use it well and Partick Thistle dominated us,” Scott added. “However, that wasn’t the case at all. I don’t want to insult them by saying it was a couple of breakaways because they were composed in their play but I would be more worried if we didn’t have the amount of play that we did and create those chances.”