Resurrection and delight for Hibs

Hibernian 4 Falkirk 3

TGraeme Macpherson at Hampden Park HIS has to be their year, doesn’t it? The team without e qual when it comes to Scottish Cup hard- l uck stories are in the final for a second successive season and, given everything Hibernian e ndured before prevailing in this remarkable semi-final, maybe the old trophy i s destined to wing i ts way back to Leith after an agonising 111-year wait.

Celtic or Dundee United, who meet this afternoon in the other semi- final, will provide the opposition but, regardless of what happens on May 26, it will surely struggle to match the drama and tension witnessed at Hampden yesterday.

After 120 minutes of pulsating play, there had been seven goals, a missed penalty, a change of referee, a goal disallowed and plenty more besides. And Hibs, somehow, had found a way to turn a 3-0 half-time deficit into the unlikeliest of 4-3 wins. “It was an unbelievable game,” said Pat Fenlon, the Hibs manager. “I’ve never been through anything like that before. And never want to again. I might just sleep until Monday or Tuesday now.”

Once more Leigh Griffiths was

(aet) at the centre of Hibs’ success. The striker was not at his best, and even missed a second-half penalty, but his peerless ability to come up with crucial goals again proved to be the difference. Griffiths scored the winner when Aberdeen were seen off in last year’s semi-final and he was at it again here, lashing in a ferocious drive five minutes from the end of extra-time to finally extinguish the resistance of plucky Falkirk and send his team into another William Hill Scottish Cup final.

After t heir i nfamous 5- 1 capitulation to Hearts in last year’s showpiece, Hibs showed they were made of stronger stuff here. Following a pitiful firsthalf performance they trooped up the tunnel three goals behind, and were lucky it was not more. When Ben Williams saved well from Falkirk’s Lyle Taylor late in the first half, it seemed an act no more significant than preventing further embarrassment. Instead it became the turning point of the game.

Fenlon was reluctant to give away too much about his halftime team talk – “it’s probably not really suitable for the papers or television,” he added with a smile – but whatever he said, allied to the decision to put on a second striker in Eoin Doyle, turned the game in Hibs’ favour. “I probably got the shape of the team wrong at the start,” Fenlon admitted. “We didn’t get enough from certain players in the shape and putting Eoin up gave them a different problem.”

Suddenly the patient, presumed dead, started to show some signs of life. The impressive Alex Harris’s effort thudded against a post via the palm of goalkeeper Michael McGovern, before Tim Clancy was denied what looked a stonewall penalty after being clipped by Falkirk’s Stewart Murdoch. Then Hibs got a break, Harris’s shot glancing off the unfortunate Darren Dods to wrongfoot McGovern. The comeback was on. Griffiths missed a sitter, then a penalty, after Murdoch brought down Danny Handling, but redeemed himself in making it 3- 2 with 12 minutes of regulation time left after being set up by Harris.

Falkirk’s young side, having given so much in the first half, were now visibly toiling and Hibs scented blood. Doyle rattled in a long-range effort after 83 minutes to level at 3-3 and take the match into extra- time, during which injured referee Iain Brines was replaced by John Beaton, the fourth official. Griffiths missed another snip and had a ‘ goal’ erroneously chalked off f or offside, but would not be denied five minutes from time when he fastened on to Dods’ clearance to fizz in a spectacular effort that gave McGovern no chance.