Hibs touted for title challenge
● Hamilton defender Kilgallon feels pain of six-goal thrashing and believes Easter Road side can have say at top of the table
Neil Lennon won’t entertain talk of Hibernian’s title prospects, not even after thumping wins like this one. But the man who unwittingly helped them achieve their biggest league victory in 12 years was less coy.
“They’re contenders,” said Hamilton defender Matthew Kilgallon, who put through his own goal in added-on time as Florian Kamberi, a striker for whom “greedy” is a compliment, having finally got on the scoresheet seconds earlier, tried to chase down another.
“Every single one of them can play footy and they don’t mind putting the foot in either,” added the Englishman. “The fullbacks bomb on and they’re all good on the ball – I was very impressed.”
Hibs have now squashed all of the teams in the bottom four places, scoring 13 goals and conceding none. Sterner tests are coming but Lennon’s men head into the international break in chirpy mood.
They had eight full internationals involved in the game, including the American Emerson Hyndman, who’s come on loan from Bournemouth to help fill the sizeable gaps left by John Mcginn, Dylan Mcgeouch and Scott Allan and on Saturday contributed his first goal for the club.
“That shows you the strength of our squad, with so many good players not only starting but on the bench,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of depth and a lot of the lads are going away this week, playing against some of the best teams in the world, and when they come back they’ll be all the better for the experience.” They’ll need to be: up next for Hibs are Celtic and Hearts, both away. Steven Gerrard’s No 2 Gary Mcallister was watching this romp and must have been impressed; Rangers loom too.
Hyndman, pictured, was asked if the Leith team can mount a serious and sustained challenge. “Well, we’re up there right now [but] we’re not looking at the table too much because it only becomes important at the end of the season. We know we have to work hard to keep up the form, show up every week and put in the performances, but if we keep winning games I don’t see why not.”
Though the goals tally would suggest Hibs have despatched the basement teams with ease, only Accies went meekly. In their last two matches too many chances were spurned. Hyndman, delighted to get off the mark in what was his best performance thus far, said: “I enjoyed that and I think abigwinhasbeencoming for a while. We were just waiting for a break out like that. I had been putting myself in good positions so it was nice to score. The monkey is off my back now.” Though Hamilton were woeful, Hibs didn’t have a weakness. Guys who didn’t score like Efe Ambrose and Lewis Stevenson still brought much verve to the party. Maybe the Australian Mark Milligan was the least flamboyant but that’s not his job. He runs defensive midfield like it’s the most laid-back surf shop, but he’s ruthlessly efficient.
Martin Boyle, newly recruited to the Aussie national squad, began the blitz. The other goals were two more corking strikes from Stevie Mallan and Hyndman had good views of both.
“It’s some shot he has. Nine goals [for the season], all from outside the box. He’s got unbelievable technique and as a midfielder who works with him, as soon as he lines up to shoot, you just run and hope for a rebound. But you know that the strikes mostly go in the top corner.”
For the much-travelled Kilgannon, now 34, the thrashing made him cringe. “You have some results in your career and I know I’m near the end of mine but 6-0 – it’s embarrassing. You’ve got your dad ringing you, your kids asking you the score. The gaffer is fuming and so he should be. We let him down massively, we let the fans down. We came here with some 18,000 watching and it looked like we gave Hibs a lot of time without a glove being laid on them.”
“At 3-0 the game was gone and we should have made sure we didn’t lose the second half but we conceded another three, two in the last 30 seconds. It’s not good enough.”