Cypriot defender fires in stunning double as Lennon’s men are pummelled in Paisley
CYPRIOT left-back Stelios Demetriou struck twice with his RIGHT foot to further fuel Saints’ hopes of dodging the drop into League One.
Jack Ross’s January capture terrorised Hibs on a stirring night in Paisley that also put the Championship title race back in the mixer.
It was a hugely disappointing night for gaffer Neil Lennon who has seen his schizophrenic side take just one point from two vital games since that 3-1 Scottish Cup defeat of Hearts.
His emergency loan signing from Celtic Efe Ambrose was hurled right into his debut and coped well enough.
The trouble was coming down Hibs’s right flank where skipper David Gray has descended into a nightmarish run of form.
One team started like champions-elect, the other like a side fighting relegation. The trouble for Lennon was that in those opening stages the roles were reversed.
Ross’s rejuvenated Buddies were at it from the off with Stephen McGinn far outshining much-vaunted brother John in the midfield battles.
Hibs – slaughtered by their manager for an inept first-half at Raith Rovers 12 days ago – once again sank into a wretchedly sluggish start.
Kyle Magennis snapped into a crunching tackle on Hibs playmaker McGinn and Stevie Mallan shot inches past.
Then John Sutton’s knockdown found Magennis from a volley that No.1 Ofir Marciano touched past.
The league leaders were rocking with Gray – tortured by Paul McMullan in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Dunfermline – once more in a world of toil against Lewis Morgan.
Saints’s academy graduate roasted the Scottish Cup hero for pace and dug out a superb 22nd-minute cross that found Magennis back post for a thrilling volley that smacked back off the crossbar.
Lennon’s anger boiled over when he clearly felt home centre-half Gary MacKenzie had conned ref Euan Anderson by hitting the deck.
Play was halted for a head knock, the Hibees gaffer felt it was a nose injury, and he flirted with being sent to a main stand baying at him in a raucous atmosphere.
You felt his fury was rising because he sensed what was coming just 10 minutes from the break.
The brilliant Mallan was the architect with a stunning ball inside an out-of-position Gray and Demetriou cut inside and thundered a right-foot shot low beyond Marciano at his near post.
McGinn then picked out Andrew Shinnie’s run. The cutback was perfect but Fraser Fyvie skied the ball miles over.
Lennon must have laid into his men at the break – yet just 42 seconds after the restart they went two down.
Mallan, bossing the midfield, arrowed another pass wide left to Demetriou and he stepped inside Gray again to rifle a 20-yarder in off the post.
Lennon withdrew holding midfielder Marvin Bartley and pitched in Grant Holt in a bid to rescue something.
Yet even when they did carve Saints open through an artful cross from McGinn knocked down by Gray, first Jason Cummings then Holt somehow managed to miss from point-blank range as Buddies keeper Billy O’Brien made a superb double stop.
At the other end, though, Morgan missed a golden chance to make it three and Hibs took exactly what they merited on the night. Nothing.