Hibs debrief: Mykola Kuharevich impresses, Kyle Magennis sells the jerseys, VAR plays its role

A look back at Friday night’s match at Easter Road between Hibs and St Johnstone in the cinch Premiership.

Player of the match

Hibs look like they’ve won themselves a watch with Mykola Kuharevich, the loanee from Troyes. He was perhaps guilty more than most of not taking chances offered, but he also scored the only goal for the hosts with an excellent header in a game full of headed goals. Not only that, he showed dangerous movement and strong link-up play. He seems to be getting better by the week.

Defining moment

Referee Kevin Clancy receives instructions from the VAR officials after Martin Boyle is booked for diving.

Kyle Magennis will want to forget this in a hurry. Already on a booking for clattering James Brown, he needlessly lunged in on Jamie Murphy at the halfway line when there was no danger at all. Though Hibs could still have had more than enough to see the game out against a St Johnstone side that was very poor to that point, Magennis has to take a huge slice of the blame.

Ref watch

It was the first ever match in Scottish football involving VAR. For those curious to see if it would play a role, they were not disappointed. There were checks on all three goals, with Nicky Clark’s the most contentious as Hibs wanted a push on Ryan Porteous. It also intervened to deny the hosts a potential late equaliser when Jair Tavares was flagged for offside (later confirmed) in the build up to Martin Boyle winning a penalty.

Benefit of hindsight

The best player on the park was taken off with 30 minutes remaining. Kuharevich may have started to slow a little, but he was still a great out-ball and led a stirring counter-attack not long before his departure. Hibs certainly could have used his ability to maintain possession after going down to ten. Regardless, a clearly tiring Kyle Magennis should probably have been withdrawn before his second yellow.

Moment you may (probably would) have missed

The VAR check for the Hibs goal was not for a potential shove from Kuharevich on defender Alex Mitchell, but instead a possible foul on Connor McLennan in the build-up. It took an unnecessarily long time to check, leading to boos from the crowd – who were in the dark as to what it was for. VAR, ladies and gentlemen.

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