El Alagui declares hot Hibs will give Rangers a bout of the jitters
FARID EL ALAGUI believes his Rangers counterparts will be casting nervous glances over their shoulders after Hibernian slashed the lead at the top of the Championship to mere goal difference.
In a title race which has scant room for slip ups, the Ibrox side dropped an unlikely two points against Livingston that allowed Alan Stubbs’ men to restore parity at the top of the table with this victory over Danny Lennon’s strugglers.
Little wonder, then, that head coach Stubbs declared these three points, which were secured thanks to a composed finish by the irrepressible Jason Cummings, as among his team’s most important of the season.
The 20-year-old scampered on to a through pass from John McGinn — who is increasingly becoming the perfect blend of craft and graft for the Leith outfit — before sliding a fine low shot beyond Alloa’s substitute goalkeeper David Crawford for his 14th goal of the season.
Hibs have taken just three weeks to obliterate what was an eight-point deficit when Rangers visited Easter Road on November 1, and El Alagui believes their current form will be sending shockwaves throughout Govan and beyond.
‘If I was a Rangers player, I would be looking in the mirror and saying: “Hibs are here!’’’ said the French-Moroccan striker.
‘Yes, they had an impressive start — like Hearts did in the Championship last year — but that gave us the desire to make sure the gap didn’t get too big.
‘When we beat Rangers 2-1, it was a message to them that we are ready to fight until the end of the season.
‘The gaffer told us in the changing room this was one of the most important wins we have had. We know it was not pretty, but games like this show how strong we are.
‘Even if the game is not the best, we can win it in a dirty way. Last year we could have crumbled with a draw or a loss.’
This win should, in fact, have been more comfortable for the visitors, as James Keatings fizzed a free-kick over the bar in the first half before Dominique Malonga struck the woodwork from all of six yards following a Lewis Stevenson cut-back.
Andy McNeil, the former Hibs goalkeeper who had to be replaced by Crawford due to injury at half-time, also made fine saves to deny McGinn and Marvin Bartley.
However, in-form Cummings finally broke through the massed ranks to ensure that the Leith side emerged with all three points intact.
Even amid this most fraught of title races, there was time for a cathartic moment in the second half when El Alagui came on to the pitch to replace Malonga.
Recreation Park was the venue where he suffered a ruptured Achilles 16 months ago.
He made a curtailed comeback at the end of last season, only for complications relating to the surgery to result in another lengthy lay-off.
His outing on Saturday was only his second appearance of the season and certainly the most poignant, as evidenced by the fact Stubbs left his selection entirely up to the player.
‘The manager had a chat with me before the game, asking if I was OK to play,’ continued El Alagui.
‘I told him it’s like falling from a bike, you just need to jump on and go again.
‘There was no chance I was going to say no. When you work so hard to come back from an injury, if someone asks you if you are OK to play — anywhere in the world — then you say: “Yes boss, I’m ready.” ‘When you come here, you obviously have the bad memories straight away.
‘However when you warm up and then get on with the game, you start to forget about all that.’ The hosts were stubborn, organised and immeasurably improved from their 5-0 defeat against Falkirk in their previous fixture. Nevertheless, they did not lay a glove on Hibs in an attacking sense.
And they were reduced to 10 men when Dougie Hill was dismissed for scything down El Alagui in the closing stages. However, Lennon was keen to focus on the positives. ‘It was a wonderful reaction to failing to reach the standards we set ourselves last week,’ he said.