TWO outstanding early Hibernian strikes seemed to bring this game to a premature conclusion. St Mirren were two goals down after five minutes, leaving a potentially flat and featureless 85 minutes in prospect – unless, of course, Hibs kept it up.
"The game would have finished 30-0 if we'd carried on like that," said Mixu Paatelainen. They couldn't and it didn't, but there was consolation aplenty for his Hibs side, who celebrated their first league win over St Mirren in three attempts th
is season. The only pity for the Easter Road side was that Motherwell's defeat of Celtic denied them the chance to move to third in the SPL.
It was a mistake that led to the first goal, after four minutes. A long Dean Shiels clearance trundled towards Chris Smith in the St Mirren goal, and although he appeared to have time to deal with it, Steven Fletcher had other ideas. Under pressure from the chasing Fletcher, the keeper could only manage a hurried clearance.
The ball fell to Colin Nish, just inside his own half. Nish strode forward and, with Smith scurrying back, lofted it over his head and into the empty net.
There was barely time to draw breath before Hibs struck again. Again it appeared to come from nothing, and from long range. Ian Murray won the ball deep in St Mirren's half, and pushed it to the feet of Merouane Zemmama, who, from 35 yards, unleashed a screamer which flew into the net.
St Mirren could count themselves pretty unfortunate.
"It's hard to explain the start," said their manager, Gus MacPherson. "Well, it's easy to explain – basic mistakes against a team of quality."
As the weather swung between spring-like sunshine to bone-chilling rain and snow, the game became more predictable. St Mirren rallied, and had Hibs under some pressure, though they were lucky not to find themselves three down after 14 minutes, when a Thierry Gatheussi cross was met by Fletcher, who headed it into the net but was ruled offside.
At 2-0, of course, there was always the chance of a St Mirren recovery. It almost came after 60 minutes, when David Barron, arriving from the right, fired the ball goalwards from close range – it was a good effort but an even better save by Andy McNeil, who got a hand to it.
Unsurprisingly most of the pressure in the second half came from St Mirren, but the Hibs defence – with Murray taking over in central defence from the injured Chris Hogg – dealt with most of it comfortably enough.
The most nervous moments came on 81 minutes, when Billy Mehmet had a header cleared off the line, and then Will Haining followed up with a shot that flew narrowly wide. McNeil came to the rescue twice more in the 90th minute when he got down to block a Stewart Kean header on the line, then deflected a Haining shot in the dying seconds.
Both managers acknowledged McNeil's contribution, Paatelainen describing his performance as "tremendous, fantastic."
The full article contains 521 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
