Hibs suffer more agony against St Johnstone - report and player ratings as Gray's men slide down table

Hibs travelled north to Perth in search of redemption – but found only more suffering as they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat that saw St Johnstone leapfrog their visitors in the Scottish Premiership table. Defeat saw David Gray’s men, desperately seeking to bounce back from Thursday night’s loss to city rivals Hearts, slip to a lowly eighth in the table after five rounds of top-flight action.

The visitors lost another early goal to trail 1-0 after just 16 minutes, fought back to equalise through Nathan Lowe before half an hour had elapsed – but fell behind to Josh Fowler’s second of the game, this one from the penalty spot, just before half-time.

On a day when Hibs saw Scotland defender Grant Hanley limp out of action on the hour mark, leaving the Easter Road side seriously short at centre-half, they managed to rally late in the game. But couldn’t not get the equaliser that would have soothed some – if not all – of the anger displayed by travelling supporters at the end of another ugly afternoon.

With Jordan Obita injured and Jack Iredale suspended following his derby red card, Adam Mayor – scorer of a screamer against Hearts after coming off the bench at Easter Road – stepped into the left back role. After another week of bemoaning his team’s inability to take chances, though, the continued injury-enforced absence of Owen Elding would have been a concern to Gray.

Defence has also been a source of some discontent among Hibs fans, of course. And, for the second time in two games, their team found themselves a goal down before they’d properly settled into the game.

Jason Holt was allowed to stroll into the red zone unopposed and play the ball out wide right, Mayor was slow to react – and his deflection on Taylor Steven’s cross diverted the ball to James Fowler waiting to tap in at the back post. A bad goal to concede, by any criteria, it did little to lift spirits among a moribund away support.

Hibs had created a couple of half chances before conceding, the best coming from Jason Kerr picking out the run of Miguel Chaiwa with a ball down the inside right channel. But the midfielder’s low cross failed to find a flounder Nathan Lowe barrelling into the box.

And that Chaiwa-Lowe combination would provide the equaliser for the visitors, the move beginning when the midfielder pounced on a loose ball inside his own half – and sent the striker loping through on a long, long run away from the Saints trailing defenders. The big No. 9 showed decent pace and great composure to bury the chance, finishing low and hard beyond Toby Steward with a right-footed strike.

To say that the game became chaotic after the equaliser would be to understate matters. Gaps opened up. Mistakes happened. Every ball forward looked like a cause for panic.

The penalty concession that gave St Johnstone the chance to regain their lead was a case in point, Martin Boyle simply beaten for pace by Enes Alic and bringing the fullback down in a tangle of legs. Not the sort of decision ever likely to be overturned by VAR, it gave Fowler the chance to send Raphael Sallinger the wrong way from the penalty spot five minutes before the break.

Ante Suto replacing a struggling Boyle at the break should have given Hibs a slightly different brand of menace in the final third, and the Aussie came close to an equaliser as he threw himself at a deflected Mayor cross early in the second half. But Fowler absolutely HAD to bag his hat-trick when Steven’s cross was curled right onto his forehead in front of an empty goal moments later.

Lowe couldn’t quite outrun the Saints defence a second time when presented with another gift just inside the opposition half. But, in an end-to-end spell of extremely low IQ football, Grant Hanley was nearly punished for giving the ball away as Fowler curled a shot wide.

Hanley limping out of the game on the hour mark left Hibs needing to patch up their defence, although replacement Kanayo Megwa came closer than any of his fellow substitutes – and there were plenty of them – to scoring an equaliser, his powerful header from Mayor’s corner brilliantly saved by Steward. Callum Wright looked lively when he came on, while Thibault Klidje had a couple of shots on goal.

But there was a lack of quality, if not effort, about their play even when they were on top. Making it a long week before they head to Dingwall on Premier Sports Cup duty next Saturday, for a fixture suddenly looking just a little more uncomfortable.