CLINICAL TOUCH
Nisbet and Boyle show their quality to sink Livi
KEVIN NISBET’S opening goal came with the first shot on target of the game. When Martin Boyle doubled the advantage in the final minute, his effort came from the second.
Yes, when things aren’t quite clicking exactly the way you’d like in the final third and gilt-edged chances are few and far between, you need players with the quality to pick the lock.
Yesterday’s goalscorers both fall into that category. And that’s why Hibernian manager Jack Ross is eager for his board to make sure Nisbet now joins Boyle and stays beyond the transfer window on a new, improved contract.
Boyle signed his three-year agreement just under a fortnight ago after a £500,000 offer from Aberdeen was dismissed and talks are continuing over Nisbet’s future as Easter Road fans wait anxiously to discover whether rumoured interest in the Scotland striker turns into anything concrete before the market goes back into mothballs.
Look, you could argue Nisbet, back from illness, and Boyle were given encouragement at both goals by a sleeping Livingston defence.
The visitors were also reduced to playing guys who only half-fit as a result of missing so many bodies, having Bruce Anderson taken to hospital with a diabetic episode at the end of the first half and seeing others fall sick mid-match.
However, that should not detract from the standard of the home pair’s finishing. It was terrific.
Nisbet created his opening by taking a ball with his back to goal and spinning his man before delivering a low, clinical shot. Boyle, meanwhile, exhibited real tenacity to get himself into a scoring position on the flank and then delicacy in dinking the ball over goalkeeper Max Stryjek.
‘We spoke about it after the game that you have to do the fundamentals, which is keeping a clean sheet and dominating the ball — which we did for a lot of the game — but then you do need quality,’ said Ross, who had Middlesbrough’s England Under-20 defender Nathan Wood in the stand as he finalises a seasonlong loan deal.
‘Every team relies upon that and we had that with the two goals. I would not overlook Paul McGinn’s part in the first goal and Scott Allan’s for the second but the finishes for both players are indicative of how they feel and also the fact they are top players in this league, which is great for me.
‘I’m pleased and the start to the season has been excellent for us.’
Nisbet was taken off on 69 minutes with cramp, but will be fit for Scotland’s triple-header of World Cup qualifiers.
Young defender Josh Doig is another player under surveillance from other clubs in these closing days of the window, with Ross hinting that links with Kristoffer Tonnesson of Norwegians IK Start are more of an insurance policy.
‘With that, I think we are trying to make sure we are prepared in case we lose any of our players,’ he said. ‘I am hoping we don’t and I am confident, maybe naively, that those players will be with us beyond the window closing.’
That Hibs enjoyed the best of the game is not in question. Yet, their forward play just lacked the necessary precision and quality.
Boyle looked lively as ever. Nisbet put in plenty of effort to get into the right places. It just didn’t come together with the desired fluency, though, and it says everything that a first half of blocked shots, off-target efforts and a 35th-minute miskick from Jamie Murphy ended without a shot on target.
Indeed, the best opportunity of that opening 45 fell to the visitors in the very early stages. A wellexecuted set-piece ended with Andrew Shinnie playing the ball inside to Anderson, whose shot on the turn fizzed wide of goalkeeper Matt Macey’s left-hand post.
The telling moment came six minutes after the interval, though. Livingston centre-back Jack Fitzwater, sick in the dressing room at half-time along with Stryjek, had just been taken off after pulling up in the centre of the field and his replacement Sean Kelly, toiling for fitness because of a pre-existing rib problem, found himself under the cosh pretty much straight away.
Hibs captain Paul McGinn played a long ball towards Nisbet, he controlled it nicely, spun Kelly in the same movement and found himself straight through on goal.
The 24-year-old is strong in such positions and there was never any doubt about his low, well-guided effort beating the dive of Stryjek.
Livi did cause consternation after the hour when a Jack Hamilton header forced Macey and Darren McGregor to join forces and scramble the ball clear.
Jake Doyle-Hayes then saw Livi players get their bodies in the way of a couple of his efforts as Hibs pushed to wrap up the victory late on — with their reward coming in the 90th minute through Boyle.
He played a one-two with Allan on the right, got in ahead of his man and dinked the ball over Stryjek from an acute angle to seal the win.