IT is to be hoped that Sunday's William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final between these two teams resembles the last five minutes of this match, rather than the bulk of the 85 which preceded them.
As this grimly fought Clydesdale Bank Premier League encounter approached its conclusion, Kilmarnock were deservedly leading through a Sammy Clingan strike, but three goals in three minutes saw a strange form of attacking anarchy take hold. And it had absolutely nothing to do with Kris Boyd, who remained resolutely on the Kilmarnock bench.
When the dust had settled, however, what did arrive were another three goals, twin Hibs equalisers from Ryan McGivern and Leigh Griffiths, either side of another sublime Kilmarnock strike from young Jude Winchester. The contrast to the opening 45 minutes was marked, although perversely Kenny Shiels said he preferred the first half. "I thought we'd won when we got the second goal," he said. "But I thought it was a great game, especially the first half. Football is not like tennis, golf, or cricket, which are all one-dimensional.It has so many variables that you can't say what kind of game Sunday will be."
Shiels brought in the impressive Winchester to replace the influential, but injured, Borja Perez, with Boyd in reserve. Hibs packed the midfield behind lone striker Leigh Griffiths and the on-loan Wolves player looked as sharp as ever as he latched on to a Mohamadou Sissoko error to sting the palms of Cammy Bell early on, then fizzed over a corner which eluded James McPake.
Kilmarnock left out Boyd and Cillian Sheridan but there is a nice blend between the wing play of James Dayton, the canny link-up work of Paul Heffernan and the strong-running of William Gros, and before long they were creating chances. There was a glimpse of things to come when Clingan struck a free-kick which had Williams beaten but struck a post. Youngster Ross Barbour was next to threaten from a cute Gros pass, before a splendid moment of Dayton trickery led to another chance.
The scoreline was still blank at the interval but the change of ends changed that. Clingan has never had a reputation as a prolific goalscorer but the way he manoeuvred the ball onto his right foot and spanked it beyond Williams from all of 25 yards made you wonder why not. The 29-year-old's first Kilmarnock goal must have been food for thought for Michael O'Neill as he prepares to pick his Northern Ireland squad for next month's games against Russia and Israel.
Kilmarnock had several chances to add to their tally. There was a low Winchester drive which whistled past, a Dayton free-kick on to the roof of the net and a sublimely controlled volley from Rory McKeown which rattled off a post with Williams beaten.
Griffiths, unsurprisingly, was Hibs' best chance of an equaliser. First he ruffled the side-netting with a low shot, then he embarked on a well nigh superhuman venture down the right which saw him burrow past three players before firing over.
His propensity to become a lightning rod for controversy, however, remains undimmed. Such was the case when he found himself manhandled by enraged Kilmarnock players after a phase of play in which Heffernan put the ball out of play ostensibly to allow treatment for the injured Barbour, only for Griffiths to test Bell from a quickly taken Hibs throw-in.
Midfielder Scott Robertson went close a couple of times as Hibs finally went for broke but it turned out we were just getting started. McGivern nodded Hibs back to parity when he got on the end of a corner from substitute David Wotherspoon, only for Winchester to puncture the mood somewhat when he ran onto a Gros pass, and curled a beauty past Williams.
Instead of getting angry, though, Hibs got even. A cross somehow found its way to the far post, to where substitute Eoin Doyle's bouncing shot struck a post, and Griffiths extended his leg to knock it over the line. "You never give up hope with these players," said Fenlon. "They go to the end in most games. I thought we deserved a point."
Sunday's Scottish Cup meeting suddenly has a lot to live up to.
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