Disastrous home debut for new Hibs boss - ratings and report as Easter Road side drop to bottom of table

The wait goes on. Marink Reedijk remains without a point to his name as Hibs manager. And his team are still without a league victory at Easter Road since April 4. They showed few signs of changing either of those damning stats in a 2-1 loss to Falkirk that exposed serious weaknesses in a squad plummeting towards relegation.

Defeat here, allied to Kilmarnock’s win, saw Hibs drop to the very bottom of the Scottish Premiership table after nine rounds of fixtures. On a day when they again killed off their own hopes with self-inflicted errors, it would be hard to argue that they deserve to be much higher in the standings.

The new manager’s home debut was supposed to be a festive affair, even without the noise and colour of the ultra group beginning a three-game ban for repeat offences. Despite the fans giving of their best to encourage the team, however, the atmosphere at full-time veered between mutinous and funereal. With good reason.

Reedijk’s men were 2-0 down within 36 minutes, Jacob Murrell capitalising on a couple of horrible errors by the home side to pile the pressure on everyone at Easter Road – including a couple of obvious targets in the directors’ box. The strain eased only slightly when Owen Elding converted a Felix Passlack cross with 40 minutes on the clock.

But the home side could not find a way to turn things around. Leaving fans asking plenty of questions – not least surrounding the new gaffer’s selection choices.

The decision to give Azeem Abdulai a first start for Hibs certainly caused some pre-match sensation. The former Scotland Under-21 midfielder had contributed no more than 70 minutes of first-team action to his new club since arriving in the summer.

The return to the starting XI of Martin Boyle, a more familiar face, and Adam Mayor showed that a) Reedijk definitely wasn’t happy with the previous weekend’s performance and b) he wouldn’t be afraid to make changes.

Dual international Abdulai, who came on as a sub for Sierra Leone in a 3-2 defeat against Zimbabwe during the most recent international break, lined up alongside Josh Mulligan and just ahead of Miguel Chaiwa in a loose adaptation of a 4-3-3. Thibault Klidje started a little deeper on the left than Boyle did on the right, with Felix Passlack – who kept the captain’s armband – continuing to tear forward from fullback, while Owen Elding led the line.

Whatever was supposed to happen, however much time Reedijk spent drilling some sort of game plan into his new team, it all went out of the window after 13 minutes, as Abdulai lost possession in midfield and Murrell ran off Marko Ivezic before beating Raphael Sallinger with a thumping right-footed finish. It took a big Sallinger leg save to prevent a Falkirk second just minutes later.

Despite putting together some exciting attacking flurries of their own, Hibs fell two behind thanks to a brain-melting moment of self-sabotage with 36 minutes on the clock, Klidje inexplicably deciding to try a back-heel pass when penned in at his own left corner flag. Falkirk gleefully pounced on the mistake, Murrell producing another big finish for the visitors.

The good news, for Hibs, was that it took just four minutes for them to drage themselves back into the contest, a Passlack cross floating over the head of Boyle but finding Elding arriving to body the ball over the line. The boos either side of half-time, one set for the team leaving the field, another for the same XI returning after the break, were a little more muted thanks to that goal.

Hibs were awarded a penalty by referee Nick Walsh after 54 minutes, only for VAR to rule that the Ethan Ross foul on Klidje had taken just outside the box, Boyle sending the free-kick high over the bar. With Jamie McGrath and Rabbi Matondo coming on for Abdulai and Klidje not long after, Hibs set themselves up to lay siege to the Falkirk goal.

McGrath had a couple of decent efforts. But Owen Eames hit the post for Falkirk. No-one could argue that Hibs deserved much more for this game. Nor can many quibble about their new status as, at least for now, the worst team in Scotland’s top flight.

Here’s how the Hibs players rated: