AIMING HIGH
No glass ceiling for Hibs as victory puts them within touching distance of splitting Old Firm
EXHIBITING the kind of f orehead bump normally seen on the Cartoon Network, Lewis Stevenson felt obliged to start with an explanation.
‘I walked into a glass door at the pre-match meal at the hotel,’ he winced. ‘I’ll need to get the Dakota to delete the CCTV footage. It was a belter.’
If we call that particular joust a score draw, i ndividually and collectively, it was the only one Hibernian chalked up on Saturday.
A little off the pace in the first half at Fir Park, all it took was Jack Ross to remind them of their true worth. Given they’ve now won six and drawn one of their nine away games in the Premiership, that should have been apparent.
There is so much to admire about the team Ross i s moulding. Defensive solidity is married to midfield craft with blinding pace walking hand- i n- hand with a constant goal threat.
Now up to third in the table, you begin to wonder what may be possible come May. Never mind glass doors. If this five - game unbeaten run rolls into the festive
The manager gave us a great team talk but it’s mad that we need it as we’re grown men
period, the strength of that glass ceiling perennially preventing challengers from splitting the Old Firm may well be tested.
‘ You probably get i nto that mindset where you aim for third, which is maybe negative, but you need to be realistic,’ Stevenson added. ‘If we said we’re going to win the league every season, we’d disappoint everyone.
‘We need to set targets but we have to make them realistic. I think we’ve done well with these blocks and reached every points tally we aimed for. So we will keep going and see where it takes us.’
Hibs may have been a little fortunate that referee Andrew Dallas spotted a soft infringement denying Bevis Mugabi a seemingly legitimate opener towards the end of the first half, but it would be entirely wrong to package this as some smash-and-grab victory.
They controlled the second half, dictated its tempo, played where they wanted to play and fashioned far more chances. The scoreline did not flatter them.
Martin Boyle exemplified their reserves of self-belief, his opening goal coming just seconds after Jordan Archer had produced a superb save to prevent him sliding Paul McGinn’s cross home.
There was no head-in-hands moment. The winger just dusted himself down, gathered Melker Hallberg’s cross and beat Archer with a strike that fizzed in via the inside of the far post.
Mugabi did strike the upright with a header after Tony Watt had blasted over on the counter with the goal gaping, but these were sporadic outbreaks of hope for Stephen Robinson’s men.
Joe Newell’s second-half display was a study in how to control a game by doing the simple things correctly.
Fittingly, it was he who set up substitute Christian Doidge for the clincher two minutes from time, with fellow subs Stephen McGinn and Jamie Gullan combining in injury time for the third, the former claiming his first goal for the club.
Now aged 32, Stevenson admits football is becoming no less of a mystery as he gets older.
‘It was two different teams in two different hhalves,’l’ hhe reflected.fltd ‘ThThe manager came in and gave us a great team talk.
‘It’s mad sometimes that grown men need that at half-time to see what they’ve been doing wrong. We got a kick up the backside, basically, to change things.
‘I think everyone realised we were just waiting for something different to happen in the second half. It was strange.
‘So many games have drifted past like that. It’s hard to put your finger on why it happens. But sometimes you just need that at half-time and we definitely did today. The second half was so much better. If we had done that in the first half, the game would have been so much easier.’
It’s Ross’s job now to ensure his playersl bbelieveli ththeiri second-dhhalf lf display wasn’t so much what they are occasionally capable of but what they are now all about.
And if that sense of self-worth remains a constant, i f you’ll indulge the painful pun, doors will open for them.
‘They’ve got the potential to be as good as any team I’ve ever been involved in,’ Stevenson offered. ‘We have some really exciting players and young prospects.
‘We’ll just focus on the six-game blocks and see where it takes us.’
Motherwell just didn’t do enough to merit taking anything to go with the six points awarded to them by the SPFL on Thursday for the Covid transgressions of Kilmarnock and St Mirren.
You had to feel a degree of ssympathy for Archer, though. Without a competitive game since playing for Oxford in January, the keeper did little wrong on his ddebut but still ended up on the wwrong end of a sore one.
The 27- year- old i s adamant, however, that there’s better to come from him if he continues to gget first-team run-outs.
Notwithstanding the f i erce ccompetition for his place that TTrevor Carson, Scott Fox and Aaron Chapman will provide when all fit and firing, the man who kept goal for Scotland in Peru two years ago believes he can yet edge his way back into the international frame by the time the Euros come aaround.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve been out there, so it’s been a difficult few months,’ said the former Spurs ttrainee. I’m happy now to find a cclub and a gaffer to give me that oopportunity to get games.
‘ There are some f antastic keepers at the club, there’s always competition, and Craig Hinchliffe’s training is second to none.
‘ But from the day I started kicking a ball, I’ve always backed my own ability.’