Hibernian produced a scintillating recovery at Easter Road as they resurrected their League Cup hopes with three goals in 12 minutes against a shell-shocked Dumbarton.
Mitchell Megginson opened the scoring for the visitors, who are managed by one of Easter Road's favourite sons, Ian Murray.
The former Aberdeen youngster blasted into the net from close range following a Scott Agnew cross. It was deja vu minutes later as Mark Gilhaney prodded the ball over the line from another Agnew delivery.
Farid El Alagui was in no mood to concede defeat, however, with the French-Moroccan halving arrears as he rose to glance a fine David Gray cross into the corner of the net.
The same man levelled matters in the closing stages, producing a magnificent header to beat goalkeeper Danny Rodgers before Sam Stanton won it late on.
With the ink barely dry on his one-year contract, Liam Fontaine was immediately pitched into action alongside Jordon Forster.
And the 28-year-old was part of a Hibs side which plumbed the depths then hit the heights during a remarkable evening in Leith. El Alagui and Alex Harris were among those to threaten in a first period dominated by the hosts. It was an encounter which was simmering, rather than igniting, however. That all changed in a remarkable second half.
Dumbarton had offered scarce threat going forward yet claimed the lead on 52 minutes. Colin Nish headed a Scott Agnew corner across the face of goal, and Megginson contorted his body magnificently to volley into the net from point-blank range.
For all their neat football, Hibs were illustrating a complete inability to defend the simplest of set-pieces. A powerful Sons side wasted no time in taking advantage of that. Another Agnew corner caused all sorts of ructions and, after an ugly scramble, Gilhaney forced the ball over the line.
El Alagui halved arrears with 12 minutes left to play, glancing a neat header into the far corner.
Having conceded 11 goals in three games prior to this match, Dumbarton looked vulnerable. And Hibs restored parity with a magnificent El Alagui header, beating Rodgers from all of 14 yards after a splendid cross from Jordon Forster.
There was only one winner now. The only question was whether would it take extra-time to bring it.
Stanton delivered the answer in style, curling a fine left-footed shot past Rodgers from 22 yards.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article