SUCKER PUNCH!
Killie strike late blow to leave Leith men dazed and fully expose the frailties Ross has inherited at Hibs
IT HAD all been going so well for Jack Ross. Two goals to the good and coasting towards a third successive win as Hibs manager, things unravelled spectacularly as Kilmarnock snatched a point with virtually the last kick of the ball.
If the former Sunderland boss had been wondering precisely what it was he had been brought in to fix, then he knows now.
This performance was very reminiscent of the last days of his predecessor, Paul Heckingbottom, where Hibs turned into the Premiership’s draw specialists, often throwing away points from a winning position.
Kilmarnock’s on-loan Juventus defender Dario del Fabro celebrated his stoppagetime equaliser like a cup-final winner but for two thirds of this match, Angelo Alessio’s side were barely in the game.
By the time Jason Naismith put Hibs two goals up with a fine strike in 47 minutes, it looked like a rout might be on the cards in front of their celebrity fan, boxing star Josh Taylor.
But the full-back went from celebrating his spectacular first goal for the club to lamenting a late punch in the guts.
With the team picking itself for the fourth game in a row, Ross started the game feeling comfortable and when their first goal arrived, it felt a little too easy.
Scott Allan spent the first 45 minutes of last weekend’s game against Motherwell picking out an array and range of passes that took the breath away.
His assist here was little more than a looper of a cross which, hung up to the edge of the six-yard box, should have been Laurentiu Branescu’s to claim with ease.
Rather than climbing with force and clamping the ball, the Kilmarnock keeper allowed Christian Doidge to muscle in and somehow get his head there first. Even then, there was a wait as the ball’s trajectory carried it up and eventually back down and over the line.
The goal was Doidge’s sixth in four games — not a bad record for a striker who looked incapable of finding the net under Heckingbottom.
Presumably, Alessio hired Branescu more for his shot-stopping ability and the on-loan Juventus man was much better in beating away Melker Hallberg’s drive and then denying Doidge from an angle after the striker latched on to Joe Newell’s pass.
Killie threatened only occasionally in the first half, notably when a toe-poked shot from Rory McKenzie was blocked by Hibs keeper Chris Maxwell.
Ross’s men were slick and methodical by comparison and extended their lead two minutes into the second half with a move that worked the ball from right to left through Allan and the excellent Vykintas Slivka.
The Lithuanian turned inside as if to shoot, buying enough time for Naismith to make up ground on the overlap. The full-back didn’t have to break stride as he sent a powerful finish beyond Branescu.
For Naismith, it was moment to savour but, inexplicably, Hibs started performing erratically.
Ross made three substitutions designed to keep his team’s energy levels high in Stevie Mallan, Martin Boyle and Daryl Horgan but without Newell, Allan and Florian Kamberi, the hosts started to give up possession with alarming regularity.
‘It was brilliant to get the goal but I would have liked it to mean more,’ said Naismith. ‘We played well for large spells but, at the end, we need to manage the game better.
‘I don’t know if we were embarrassed to be ugly and just see the game out. At 2-0, we stopped doing the things that got us the lead. That’s criminal.’
Killie fared better with their subs. Osman Sow — starting in place of the ill Eamonn Brophy — once earned Hearts a seven-figure fee from China but had made no impression on the Hibs defence before being withdrawn.
His replacement, Simeon Jackson, arrived in tandem with winger Liam Millar on the
hour and they livened things up. Killie then grabbed a lifeline from a corner. Del Fabro rose to attack the ball at the back post and, from the partial clearance, Alex Bruce stabbed his effort home.
From there, the visitors started to turn the screw. Millar fizzed over a cross that Chris Burke narrowly missed at the back post, with Millar doing likewise from Stephen O’Donnell’s pass moments later.
Eventually, the dam burst. O’Donnell squeezed a low cut-back into the area and Del Fabro arrived to knock the ball into the net and spark jubilation among the Killie fans sitting behind the goal.
After a smooth start, Ross will now conduct his first post-mortem ahead of the midweek trip to the Highlands to face Ross County. He does not want late goals against to become a theme.
‘I was aware there had been that scenario but I’d been conscious not to pay too much attention to what has gone before,’ he said afterwards. ‘The only thing I can affect is what’s happened since I took the job.
‘People talk about bravery to play and we showed that early on — but you also need bravery to make those ugly decisions that win matches.’