EMPIRES seem to have risen and fallen, seasons changed and the whole world plunged into depression since Kilmarnock and Hibernian last won a couple of Scottish Premier League games. Exactly why it has become such a lost art was laid bare by a mildly diverting draw the pair fought out. It exposed so many of their flaws and seemed so eminently predictable.
The Easter Road men seem bereft of inspiration, aside from the bundle of it offered by the erratic Derek Riordan. He conjured up a ninth goal of the season with the help of a deflection, but this 40th minute extravagance aside, no one in green appear
ed capable of providing the shoots of recovery that Mixu Paatelainen's side are crying out for.
For their part Kilmarnock could at least cite mitigating circumstances for the fact that their spirited plugging away in search of an equaliser seemed lacking in incisiveness until Jamie Hamill struck with a fine hit 14 minutes from time. Suspension deprived Jim Jefferies of David Fernandez and Kevin Kyle, while injury accounted for the absence of the dependable Danny Invincibile and Allan Russell, who will be out the rest of the season with a cruciate problem. In light of these front line problems, the point will have been more satisfying for the Ayrshire club. It kept them above 10th place St Mirren but only on goal difference.
Hibs, meanwhile, have now slipped out of the top six but look like a team who belong in the bottom half of the SPL. Paatelainen would vehemently disagree judging by the sheen with which he buffed up a stuttering performance. He spoke of his team being "tremendous" in the first half, describing his men as "all over their opponents", "fully" deserving of their lead and only undone because they "didn't get a second goal to kill off" their opponents. "That has been the story of the season for us so far," he said.
His tale told yesterday bore little resemblance of that related by Jefferies, whose handle on events seemed closer to what was played out. He praised his extensively depleted team – in which James Fowler, Frazer Wright and Mehdi Taouil also did not feature – for their "will and determination". "It would have been an absolutely travesty if we hadn't come away with anything," said the Killie manager. "In fact, if anyone deserved to win it, it was us. It was a tremendous performance and it at least stops the rot after a couple of narrow defeats."
The encounter was between two of the country's out-of-form teams.
You could almost smell the desperation wafting from the combatants in the early stages. Players pounded around the field as if pelting runs and putting the foot in could compensate for a criminal lack of poise. Endeavour so often requires to serve as a substitute for elegance in the Scottish game, but that in itself does not mean what is then produced can't compel. If watching folk push their bodies to the limits didn't engage on some level, then all forms of athletics, cycling and other disciplines could not be deemed watchable on any level.
Of course, it tells everything about Hibs' diminishment when you are left to commend them for effort above all else. The team once regarded as the SPL's real aesthetes are now just largely a scuffing, sometime capable, side just like the other middle-ranking teams they so comfortably rank among. Steven Fletcher, carrying a knock and benched yesterday, and Riordan are better than that. It was Riordan's willingness to attempt the audacious and his lush striking power that provided the initial twist in an encounter Kilmarnock seemed to be controlling following an early flurry from Paatelainen's team.
Killie's success in restricting much of the play to their opponents' half – and forcing the best opening of the first period – was rendered incidental when Riordan picked up the ball fully 30 yards from goal. Delightfully flicking the ball over the head of the on-rushing Manuel Pacscali, he engineered himself space to shoot before the Italian got his body in the way of his belting drive, only it divert it wide of a static Alan Combe, who seemed beaten all too easily.
Jefferies would have had cause then to despair over the paper-thin margins between a ball-to-body-part connection helping a shot find its target and stopping it doing so. For only a minute earlier, after great scavenging from Craig Bryson and Hamill presented Conor Sammon with a glorious opening, the Irishman seemed to have clipped a controlled effort goalwards… only for Chris Hogg to stick out a foot and deflect the ball on to the roof of the Hibs' net. Jefferies scowled later that it struck the defender's hand.
Sammon was the Rugby Park side's lone attacker in a 4-5-1 system that left his side looking blunt in forward areas. He was guilty of squandering a free header just after the restart, but Kilmarnock deserve immense credit for refusing to accept a loss that began to seem inevitable as the contest entered its final quarter.
Hibs youngster Paul Hanlon played his part in the home side's equaliser, clumping a clearance straight to Hamill, who steered a superb shot in at the far corner from the right hand corner of the net. For Paatelainen, the defender's inexperience then told, but the Hibs manager was at pains not to condemn a "good boy". It was a goal warranted on the balance of play, though both teams had near mighty things to claim full points in a frantic end. It was no surprise they didn't take them. Winning is something other teams do right now.
