Hibs positives in short supply despite ground gained in Euro race - but are wobbling 'Well there for taking?
Talking points as zero-entertainment experiment in brutalist sport delivers minor consolation
Trying to locate positives from a goalless draw with the worst team in the Scottish Premiership, a side virtually doing laps of honour to celebrate a first clean sheet in 26 games, is nobody’s idea of a pleasant experience. For Easter Road regulars who have understandably developed something of a swagger over the past 16 months or so, being asked to seek consolation from a single point at home to Livingston feels almost like an insult.
And yet … needs must, right? Without turning focus too far away from some of the glaring weaknesses exposed in yesterday’s godawful encounter, a brutalist experiment in football without entertainment, attention must switch to what happens next.
Because Motherwell at Fir Park, a fixture best described as a European football eliminator (part 1) for two teams intent on securing fourth place in the Scottish Premiership, is already shaping up to be a contest of enormous significance. Everything that happened in Edinburgh yesterday, then, must be viewed through the prism of a greater test – and a potentially more straightforward challenge, if that makes sense – looming just over the horizon.
So what are the key talking points we can take from Hibs nil, Livingston very nil on an afternoon of changeable weather and bleak fare? And what does it tell us about the chances of David Gray’s team closing the gap – further – on the team ahead of them in Scotland’s top flight?
No joy, no excitement – but a point gained, somehow
A stinking game. A howler of a match. One team playing with 10 outfielders behind the ball. The other desperately trying to break down two banks of five deployed deep in their own territory.
It may be football. It sure as hell isn’t entertainment. But nobody could blame former Easter Road favourite Marvin Bartley for anything he did, tactically speaking, in a game where his team were always going to be second best.
The concern for Gray, of course, is that his team lacked any sort of clinical edge in the final third. A total of 22 shots and an expected goals (xG) of 1.85 should have been converted into a victory.
Ante Suto, handed a first start, looked a shadow of the player who had scored three times in five substitute appearances. Owen Elding had no space in which to operate.
Jamie McGrath was the best player on the park, although Livi centre-half Danny Finlayson also caught the eye. But even a slightly manufactured controversy over a late penalty decision, with the right call made in the end, couldn’t add any sense of drama to a game singularly lacking in anything worth watching.
Nobody involved with Hibs would have spent last night running around shouting about how they’d gained ground on Motherwell. But look at the table. What was seven points is now six. That’s not an opinion – it’s just counting.
Made in Scotland, from (wobbly) girders …
The Steelmen look anything but solid at the moment. Back-to-back defeats have rendered Jens Berthel Askou’s men suddenly vulnerable to any sort of decent knock, it seems.
Following up their loss to Dundee at Dens Park by throwing away a lead in a defeat at Celtic Park hardly makes Motherwell a bad team, of course. Beating Celtic on their own patch isn’t for everyone, after all. Hint, hint.
But they’ve lost three of their last five in all competitions. Still undisputed darlings of the semi-educated hipster wannabes, they haven’t yet secured fourth place.
Hibs must find a way to test them early. Give them a reason to doubt, to panic, to feel bad about themselves. And build from there.
A different sort of game
The one guarantee about next weekend’s match? Hibs won’t spend 85 of the 90 minutes battering away at a packed defence. And that should suit Gray’s men.
Yes, they were comprehensively outplayed on their most recent visit to Fir Park. Even if Grant Hanley’s first-half red card definitely influenced the game, obviously.
When the teams met in a 1-1 draw at Easter Road in January, however, nobody in attendance could claim to have been completely blown away by Jens and his team reinventing total football. It was a standard Scottish Premiership contest, with the visitors just edging possession but the hosts creating more in the final third.
Gray has plenty of decisions to make between now and Saturday. He’s not one to simply assume that things will be better, with a bit of work on finishing.
And there is only one way to eradicate the feeling of what might have been, the knowledge that the gap on Motherwell could have been down to four points this morning, if only someone – anyone – had been able to find the net. Go and get the job done at Fir Park.