Hibs debrief: Lewis Stevenson's return to midfield; captaincy quirk; decent subs

A look back at Hibs’ 2-0 defeat by Rangers at Ibrox.

Lewis Stevenson captained the team and returned to midfield - for the first time in a long time

Player of the match

Lewis Stevenson was deployed in a central midfield role, somewhere he hasn’t intentionally been for a number of years now, but the captain put in a valiant display in the middle of the park in difficult conditions. Sylvester Jasper deserves a mention too – his pace and trickery will be a big boost to Hibs once he’s able to start matches, and 80-odd minutes last night will have done him no harm.

Defining moment

Can you have a “defining moment” barely five minutes into the game? The penalty award for Rangers after Paul McGinn’s foul on Ryan Kent meant Shaun Maloney had to go back to the drawing board and the loss of McGinn to injury not long after meant further changes.

Ref watch

Nick Walsh got the Rangers penalty call right, might have given a spot-kick for the incident involving Calvin Bassey and Ryan Porteous, and was jeered off by the home fans at half time and full time. There were a series of strange calls in terms of bookings with Tavernier carded after one foul and Jasper seemingly getting away with a string of offences without drawing a caution.

Benefit of hindsight

Honestly, there’s not a lot else that Shaun Maloney could have done differently. That McGinn appeared to suffer a recurrence of the injury he picked up against Livingston might have signalled he wasn’t match fit and raises questions about whether his lack of sharpness contributed to the penalty but he got the substitutions right – Josh Campbell on for Stevenson to avoid a second yellow; Christian Doidge on for the tiring Demi Mitchell, Jasper for McGinn, and Chris Mueller for Ewan Henderson who also faded.

Moment you may have missed

When skipper Stevenson was replaced late on, Porteous took over the armband – as he had against St Mirren – rather than one of the more senior players such as Cadden, Doidge, or even Matt Macey. It remains to be seen if both were calculated decisions or whether it was simply a case of Stevenson passing the armband on to a player remaining on the park but it feels significant that a big character like Porteous is taking over captaincy duties on occasion.

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