The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Mistakes cost Pars dearly as Hibees fight back for victory
A couple of defensive lapses cost Dunfermline as Hibernian came back from a goal down to win 3-1 at East End Park.
It had all started so brightly for Allan Johnston’s men as they looked the more likely to score in a tight first half and could have been more than a goal up at the break.
Hibees defender Darren McGregor had managed to block a Kallum Higginbotham effort before a soft penalty award gave the same player the chance to break the deadlock.
Alan Muir pointed to the spot in the 22nd minute after seeing a shove in the box. The referee himself was not clear on who was punished, with Hibs assistant boss Garry Parker saying afterwards it was adjudged to have been a push by John McGinn on Lee Ashcroft which led to the award.
A minute after Higginbotham had dispatched the resulting penalty, Farid El Alagui should have made it 2-0 but shot tamely into the body of the diving Ofir Marciano.
It was not just El Alagui who struggled in the second period. Having had a talking to at the interval, Hibs came out the blocks quickly after the restart.
Only a post denied Paul Hanlon a headed equaliser before they levelled in 55 minutes.
Higginbotham passed straight to James Keatings and the Hibs man was able to drift in on to his left foot and hit a shot that instead of flying wide, took a deflection off Lee Ashcroft and flew into the net.
It was another error which led to Grant Holt scoring Hibs’ second from the spot in 66 minutes.
Ashcroft let Andrew Shinnie in behind him from a through ball and hauled down the midfielder to concede a penalty.
Now a goal down, all the play was towards the home goal and it was no real surprise that Neil Lennon’s side got a third in stoppage time.
Shinnie was again able to get behind the defence and then cut the ball back for former Dundee United and St Johnstone striker Brian Graham to fire home.
There was still time for a red card, with Pars striker Michael Moffat seeing red for a tackle on McGregor.
Afterwards Pars boss Allan Johnston defended former Hibs striker El Alagui for his crucial miss – but admitted he had no complaint over the award of Hibs’ penalty.
“I thought Farid was different class first half. You could see he was struggling a bit with his calf second half and that changed the way we played a wee bit because we were having a lot of joy,” said Johnston.
“He was holding the ball up for us, winning headers and caused them loads of problems.
“Regarding the penalty award, it’s just a launch up the park and we’ve just got to clear the danger but it happens and we just have to make sure we don’t keep making those kinds of mistakes.”
Midfielder Higginbotham was quick to hold his hands up afterwards after his gaffe led to Hibees’ equaliser .
“I take full responsibility. I gave the ball away in a sloppy area and they go and score from that,” he said
“That gave them a massive lift and seemed to knock our confidence and we just didn’t seem to get going after that.”