KILMARNOCK V HIBS FEB 2018
The lunchtime kick-off at Rugby Park proved to be a tad too early for a Kilmarnock team that spent the first 15 minutes of their match against Hibs still half asleep.
While Killie were still rousing themselves, Hibs made a dream start, going a goal up before anyone had even settled in their seat. Lewis Stevenson’s cross was deflected by Gary Dicker towards Florian Kamberi, who took advantage of the opening to rocket the ball into the net with just 28 seconds on the clock.
That would, you would have thought, acted as a wake-up call for Killie but that could not have been further from the truth, with Hibs remaining entirely in control, which resulted in their lead being doubled after just nine minutes when Ryan Porteous bulleted home a header from a John McGinn corner to notch up his first league goal.
Jamie MacLaren should have made it three just a minute later but from there, Kilmarnock regained something of their composure and shored things up, at least partially.
Hibs continued to look dangerous every time they charged forward but they could not add to their lead while Killie’s best chance came just before half-time when Jordan Jones hit the post from 25 yards out.
The Ayrshire side began the second half much improved and they were rewarded in the 57th minute when Jones found the top corner with a cracking shot from the edge of the box. The home side then were awarded a penalty for an alleged handball. Kris Boyd’s penalty was saved by Ofir Marciano but the striker knocked the follow-up in, with Hibs manager Neil Lennon was sent to the stand in the aftermath of Kilmarnock’s equaliser.
By this point, Kilmarnock were in the ascendancy but despite a number of near misses, they could not snatch a winner.
In the end, it was Hibs manager Neil Lennon who was most satisfied with a point but he was particularly vexed as he felt the quality of Kilmarnock’s astroturf pitch put his side at a severe disadvantage.
“I’m delighted to come away with a point,” he said.
“If we had got beaten this would have sounded like sour grapes but the pitch is abysmal. I can understand why Kilmarnock have won seven matches in a row here. It is impossible to play football on it. It's dangerous, players are slipping, losing their balance, falling over.
“It's dry, they should really water it. But they won't because it's a disadvantage to them. We've had to overcome that and also overcome another appalling refereeing decision and performance. So to come away with a point, I've got to be satisfied.”
Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke was, despite his team looking down and out after ten minutes of the match, ultimately disappointed by only taking a single point from the game.
“I was disappointed to drop two points in a game we should have won because we were the better team almost from start to finish,” he said.
“It was a really disappointing start but we recovered well and played a lot of good stuff.
“I think we've shown since I've been at the club the spirit is good and we react to adversity. But the over-riding feeling is disappointment is we've dropped two points at home.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel