It was always going to be tough for Saints to take anything from this game, and the opening exchanges confirmed this as Hibs dominated, creating openings but being foiled by either the offside flag or poor control. Gary O'Connor was looking lively up front and flashed an effort across the face of goal midway through the half. He came closer with another effort after half an hour, forcing Saints keeper Craig Hinchcliffe into a superb save.
Despite Hibs dominating, Hinchcliffe had very little to do as Hibs often missed the target with some comical efforts from range and some poorly taken corners. The highly rated Derek Riordan looked completely out of sorts and did very little all afternoon. Having scored a fair number of goals this season I think we can assume that he was just off form, but he was certainly anonymous for most of the afternoon.
The first half wasn't all Hibs though, as Saints did manage to create a few openings in the Hibs half, however none of them came to much. A mixu up put Russell in but his effort hit the Hibs keeper, and Ryan McCay's follow up was quickly cleared. Some Andy Millen free kicks were knocked down by Kirk Broadfoot, and from one Stewart Kean could well have had the Saints fans in dreamland but he miscued his effort, only for a Hibs defender to try his best to make up for things by swiping the ball narrowly wide. From the resulting corner Broadfoot headed over.
With the fourth official signalling for that there would be two minutes of added on time it looked like Saints would make it to the break on level terms. However, a small part of me just knew that Hibs would score in those two minutes, and so it proved with thirty seconds of the half remaining. O'Connor found Scott Brown down the right and he cut into the box, firing the ball under Hinchcliffe and into the net. Hibs probably deserved to lead at the break, but for them to score at such a time was heartbreaking.
Saints started the second half more brightly, with Simon Lappin's free kick being easily saved by the Hibs keeper. There was a lot of possession in the final third but, as per usual, Saints couldn't make any of it count, the best chance coming when Broadfoot had a header cleared off the line. Saints boss Gus MacPherson had already decided to go for it by this stage, replacing Russell and McCay with McGinty and O'Neill.
it was all over with just under twenty minutes remaining. A long ball from the Hibs defence caught the Saints defenders on the back thought. Hinchcliffe rushed from his goal but could do nothing to stop O'Connor getting to the ball first, and he cooly rounded the Saints keeper before rolling the ball into the net.
After this Hibs regained dominance, with Antonio Murray hitting the post and Scott Brown coming close to making it three. There was some final minute drama when Hinchcliffe appeared to flatten O'Connor, but Willie Young felt the Hibs striker had dived and booked him!
In the end, 2-0 was a fair result but it would have been nice to see a Saints goal. However, we lacked cutting edge and whilst the Saints players gave 110% all game long, it perhaps showed what areas we are lacking in. We need at least another two strikers and a slightly younger defender to cope with pacey strikers.
The Saints support were superb all afternoon, backing the team before the game even kicked off. If we could just get that level of support at home we could start doing things in the first division.