Remember the last 6 times Hibs hit teams for six

Following the 6-0 thrashing of Hamilton Accies on Saturday, Joel Sked looks back at the previous six times Hibs have hit teams for six.
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• READ MORE: Hibs accounts: Easter Road club back in the black

Motherwell 6 - 6 Hibs - Scottish Premier League 5 May 2010

It was a game so preposterous, so memorable that it has its own Wikipedia page.

Florian Kamberi netted a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Runavik. Picture: SNS/Ross ParkerFlorian Kamberi netted a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Runavik. Picture: SNS/Ross Parker
Florian Kamberi netted a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over Runavik. Picture: SNS/Ross Parker
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Going into the midweek clash both sides were in the hunt for fourth place and a European position. It was originally scheduled for Thursday, 6 May but after a complaint by Motherwell it was moved to the day before. The reason? Voting for the general election was taking place with a polling station at nearby Knowetop Primary.

It meant the game clashed with a Premier League Champions League qualification shootout in the Premier League. Both games were shown on Sky Sports. Those who tuned in to watch Spurs beat Manchester City 1-0 missed out on one of the games of the century.

Some of the football Hibs played at times was fantastic as John Hughes fielded a front three of Colin Nish, Anthony Stokes and Derek Riordan. It was the former who opened the scoring with a tap-in after some slick interplay at the edge of the box.

Giles Coke would equalise but all that seemed to do was provoke Hibs. Nish put the away side back ahead with a shot which squirmed past John Ruddy in the Well goal and completed his hat-trick by the 36th minute. Sandwiched between those goals, Riordan pounced on an error to make it 3-1.

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John Sutton would grab a crucial goal for the home side before half-time to make it 4-2, yet, at the time, it seemed to be no more than a consolation. Even more so when Stokes grabbed a double after the interval, giving Hibs a seemingly unassailable four-goal lead with 25 minutes remaining.

Well fans were leaving when Coke scored his second in the 67th minute. And there was genuine hope five minutes later when Tom Hateley’s free-kick wasn’t kept out by Graeme Smith between the sticks for the Easter Road side. Pressure increased further on Hibs after Sutton headed in another with 14 minutes left to play to make the score 6-5.

The home side would miss a penalty before the coup de grâce. Lukas Jutkiewicz stunned everyone thumping in a Marco van Basten-esque effort in stoppage time. A wild game.

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Hibs were terrific in the first-half of what was a topsy turvy encounter. Popular forward Dominque Malonga scored a hat-trick, while Alan Stubbs waxed lyrical about Scott Allan, who ran the show.

“For me, Scott Allan is as good as anyone in the league, he really is. It’s obvious to see. He’s head and shoulders above most players he comes up against,” the then Hibs boss said at the time.

In the 23rd minute Allan opened the scoring and before 30 minutes had elapsed, Malonga and Paul Hanlon added goals two and three. Hibs were threatening to run riot.

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Standards slipped in the second half with Dumbarton reducing the arrears, bringing it back to 3-2 around the hour mark. Goals were traded to make it 4-3 with Malonga notching his second. By that time some fans may have been casting their minds back more than ten years to the aforementioned clash with Motherwell.

Hibs would score six but there was no further reply from the Sons. Malonga completed his treble and Sam Stanton grabbed the other.

Paired with the then East Super League champions, some suggested it could potentially be a tricky encounter for Neil Lennon’s men.

The game had been moved to Tynecastle with the Hibs fans making up the majority of the 12,451 crowd in Gorgie and they treated it just like a home game. They scored in the opening 15 minutes through Andrew Shinnie and rarely stopped.

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James Keatings and Chris Humphrey added goals two and three to give the Hibees a commanding lead within 25 minutes. There was a moment to cheer for Rose, Dean Hoskins converting a disputed penalty.

Lennon made sure his charges did not let up. Jason Cummings scored either side of a Lewis Stevenson goal, Keatings added a second before Jordan Forster completed the rout.

“Some Hibs fans may have been more than a touch sceptical about the signing of Simon Murray but they are certainly warming to the flame-haired striker,” wrote David Hardie.

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The new recruit from Dundee United netted his third, fourth and fifth goals for the club in the thumping win. He had already scored twice in a 4-0 win over Montrose in the club’s first Betfred Cup fixture of the campaign.

He gave Hibs the lead with a header before Steven Doris levelled the scores for the Red Lichties. Yet, with the game meandering to the interval Ryan Porteous headed Hibs in the lead.

The second-half was all about the Hibees. Murray grabbed his second and McGinn smashed in a stunning goal to make it 4-1 after 53 minutes.

Porteous grabbed his second on an evening he was awarded the man of the match, although Murray stole the show completing his hat-trick in stoppage time against the team Dundee United signed him from.

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Hibs got the current campaign off to a flying start by battering their Faroese opponents in a thoroughly dominant and one-sided performance at Easter Road.

Flo Kamberi, in his first match after signing permanently from Swiss side Grasshoppers, hit his second hat-trick for the club while simultaneously becoming the first Hibs player to net a treble in Europe for the first time in 45 years.

Alan Gordon put three past Hadjuk Split in the European Cup-Winners Cup in 1973 and Kamberi matched that feat within 48 minutes. A third minute penalty, which he won, was converted before he steered in a Martin Boyle cross to double Hibs’ lead. Three minutes after half-time he collected Paul Hanlon’s cross before coolly scoring.

By then Oli Shaw and Stevie Mallan had both found the back of the net from outside the box, and Mallan would grab a second late-on after ten-man Runavik had scored a consolation.

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Despite the bonkers game, which at one point was shrouded in fog, there were a few positives to take from the trip to Faroe Islands which was effectively a dead-rubber.

David Gray reminded everyone of what he can bring to the team, something which he has continued into the league campaign, and Stevie Mallan netted twice more from outside the box. He has barely stopped since.

Hibs found themselves two down within six minutes after some defensive calamities which brought about nervous looks. But John McGinn was having none of it and dragged Hibs into proceedings, netting the first before Lewis Stevenson had levelled after 16 minutes.

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It looked, however, that the home side would take a first-half lead only for Gray to equalise in stoppage time.

Efe Ambrose put Hibs in front for the first time with a goal which was hard to make out due to the fog but Runavik would hit back this time for 4-4.

Mallan scored twice in seven minutes to secure the win and a quite remarkable 12-5 aggregate victory.

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