Hibs Find Their Rhythm

After Tuesdays return to form against Kenilworth I was hopeful of a similar performance and certainly improved confidence amongst the players.

The opening 25 minutes lacked any intensity from Hibs, the lads play being lethargic and disjointed. Mick was refereeing the first half and the loss of his passionate motivation of the players from the side lines was key to the lads drop in tempo. A major turning point for the game was Lucas’ introduction after 25mins, he immediately bought an energy to our game and went on to give easily his best performance of the season. Shortly after Lucas’ introduction Tariq put us 1:0 up with an excellent long range strike. First half ended with Hibs leading by the only goal of the game.

The 2nd half was a much more intense display by the team. Tariq increased our lead after just 5mins of the 2nd half when he converted a quality corner from Ryan. We then went 3:0 up when excellent work by Seb set Lucas down the line, a dangerous cross being well pounced on by Jayden. Whilst many of our usually dependable players seemed a bit out of sorts in the game, there were others having stand out performances. As well as the already mentioned Lucas, Tai was having an excellent game, being instrumental in build-up play that almost led to our 4th goal, Rugby’s keeper making a good save from Ollie’s header. Three minutes from time Lucas put the icing on the cake with a good header, assisted by Ollie’s cross. At the final whistle we ran out comfortable 4:0 winners.

In addition to Lucas and Tai, Jermaine and Jack had very strong games – a clean sheet being their reward for these. Jermaine looks physically strong, fast and capable in his new role in defence and Jack’s alertness to the game and speed off his line (which has been a hallmark of his keeping all season) snuffed out many openings Rugby created.

My final observation is that this team needs a leader on the pitch. When Mick is not vocal we become lacklustre and mute as a team, and our performance definitely suffers. Most of the lads have played together for years now and many are mates off the pitch, none of them should feel awkward about being vocal and taking the lead – any volunteers?