Hibs prove they have the pizazz to sparkle back in top flight
SEXY football? Compared to three years spent scuffling around in the unloved hinterland of the Championship, you had better believe it.
Neil Lennon believes the top flight has been given a welcome injection of pizazz by the return of Hibernian — and the handsome crowd of almost 18,000 squeezed into Easter Road yesterday lapped up every moment of a hugely encouraging victory.
There were flamethrowers on trackside as the teams took the pitch, sun in the sky and a bar set up outside the East Stand to get the festivities going.
Indeed, so strong was the party spirit that even chairman Rod Petrie was given a rousing reception from all corners of the stadium as he unfurled the league flag, walking off with the Championship trophy raised triumphantly in his right hand.
Who would have put money on that when the club tumbled out of the Premiership through the playoffs under Terry Butcher in 2014? Petrie could barely step outside his own front door without getting it in the neck back then. Now, he’s the cock of Leith Walk. Kind of.
Certainly, his club is a much more vibrant, dynamic and progressive place. Goals from Martin Boyle and Steven Whittaker, followed by a Simon Murray penalty, helped make sure Chris Erskine’s early opener for Thistle was nothing more than a temporary blip.
A by-product of a little performance anxiety, perhaps.
What will excite those Hibs fans present, though, is that there is good reason to expect much more as the season progresses.
Anthony Stokes and Vykintas Slivka made late cameos from the bench. Deivydas Matulevicious didn’t get on at all. The team was made up largely of last term’s performers, with David Gray and Darren McGregor’s suspensions barely felt at all.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, mind you. Seven minutes in, running the show and a goal up, it looked like Thistle were about to prove the ultimate party poopers.
Their opener was a nicely-taken affair as well, an incisive move ending with Stevie Lawless popping a short pass into Erskine and the attacker holding off Efe Ambrose to beat goalkeeper Ofir Marciano low to his left from inside the area.
Ambrose hardly covered himself in glory in trying to prevent the shot, but let’s not be too critical at this early stage of the campaign.
From that point onwards, though, the visitors lost their nerve. There seems no other explanation for it. Silly individual errors, slack passes, an inability to keep possession. They invited Hibs back into the match and paid a heavy price against a team that will have given the watching Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha plenty of food for thought ahead of their visit to Ibrox next weekend.
On 14 minutes, Boyle benefited from a spot of luck to level. John McGinn had overhit his pass to the onrushing Danny Swanson at the edge of the area and the ball went right through his legs.
Fortunately for Boyle, no one had bothered to track his run and he produced a solid finish past Tomas Cerny.
The Jags were falling apart in front of our very eyes as it was and the loss of Kris Doolan with a hamstring injury just before the break all but sealed their fate.
Youngster Kevin Nisbet came on as a replacement and walked into a firestorm. Within three minutes of his arrival, Thistle found themselves 2-1 down.
Swanson, taking an ever greater influence in the game, played the ball across from the left-hand side after linking up with Dylan McGeouch and Whittaker nipped in ahead of his man to force it into the corner with the outside of his right foot. Hardly a thunderous finish, but it didn’t need to be.
Seven minutes into the second period and Hibs were more or less home and hosed. Thistle lost possession deep inside their own territory and Callum Booth pulled down Boyle in the area as he attempted to connect with a forward pass from McGinn.
Referee Nick Walsh pointed to the spot. Booth kept his head down.
Murray sent Cerny the wrong way from the spot for his eighth goal of the campaign so far.
There were some signs of life from Thistle around the midway point of the half. Erskine had a decent volley spilled by Marciano before going into the book on 69 minutes for complaining bitterly after the Jags had not been awarded a penalty for what seemed a pretty mild infringement against Christie Elliott.
That was it, though. From then on, it was just a case of the home side coasting to victory, enjoying a day that has been a long time coming.
There was love in the air at Easter Road, all right. The Hibees have already got their mojo working.