How Hibs rated in Kilmarnock catastrophe - report and man-by-man marks from Easter Road as Gray's men collapse

Dismal, depressing and destined to create another storm of pressure focused on embattled manager David Gray, Hibs crashed to a humiliating home loss to a Kilmarnock side who arrived at Easter Road sitting dead last in the Scottish Premiership rankings – and left celebrating a first win at this venue in 12 long years.

A sixth consecutive league defeat at home for Hibs, believed to equal an unwelcome club record last ‘achieved’ back in 1920, prompted a furious response from fans at full-time. And guarantees that that Gray will face fresh calls for his dismissal even before they face Aberdeen here in Saturday’s final round of pre-international break fixtures.

Because, leaving aside the result, this was a truly miserable performance from Hibs. They fell behind to a horrific goal from George Stanger with 39 minutes gone.

They needed a VAR reprieve for offside to deny Killie a second. And, on a night when Gray lost yet another defender to injury, the home side could not find a way to truly trouble visitors who arrived without a single league win to their name in the current campaign - and survived a late red card for sub Djenairo Daniels to grab all three points.

Over 15,000 turned up to watch this. Not many of those were left at full-time, their patience long since stretched beyond breaking point by a brutal game.

To say that the first half was low on quality would be overstating the fare laid before supporters, who were booing long before Hibs conceded the opener. The nature of that concession had home fans in fits – and rightly so.

It all began with early substitute Grant Hanley, on after just seven minutes as a replacement for the injured Kanayo Megwa, retreating and conceding a corner in a one-on-one with Joe Hugill. When the set-piece delivery from the right wasn’t fully cleared, chaos ensued.

Erik Ring’s right-footed ball back into the box from the left wing bounced just in front of Raphael Sallinger, who could only slap it out into the danger zone. Centre-half Stanger fired the ball through a ruck of bodies to score a deflected goal that heaped all sorts of pressure on the hosts.

Among those Hibs fans who had bothered to turn up, a fair proportion might have been wishing they’d suffered the same fate as the naughty boys hit with a one-game ban for this fixture.

Their collective ire reached new levels when Killie appeared to go 2-0 up eight minutes into the second half, only for a VAR check to save Hibs. Who had just thrown on Martin Boyle, Nathan Lowe AND Owen Elding in a triple change designed to energise the home attack.

The introduction of Miguel Chaiwa added some more oomph to midfield, the all-action athlete forcing Killie keeper Max Stryjek to tip a thumping long-range shot over the bar. But the visitors really ought to have doubled their lead on a couple of occasions – with Joe Hugill, who had seen his ‘goal’ disallowed by VAR, guilty of squandering both chances.

He got the final shot away, wide of target, as Kilmarnock butchered a three-v-two caused by Jack Iredale making the wrong decision to come flying out of the back line when he couldn’t win the ball. And only a stunning leg save from Passlack prevented the big No. 9 from converting a tap-in as Hibs were carved open heading into the final 15 minutes of play.

The hosts threw bodies and balls into the box with increasing frequency, and increasing desperation, as they chased a point that might count for something – but would have done little to change the overall mood of punters pushed to the brink of open revolt.