The sun wasn't shining on Leith yesterday but St Mirren still made hay on a dour afternoon as they ended a run of three successive defeats with a thoroughly deserved victory.
Three goals to the good after a rousing opening 45 minutes of industry and invention, the visitors still had to stave off a late charge of the green and white brigade as an engrossing encounter careered to a conclusion. They even survived a boisterous bawl for a penalty in injury time when a bouncing ball shot off Adam Campbell's hand. "You could've got him a contract with a volleyball team after that," said Hibernian manager Terry Butcher with a wry smile.
For the last 25 minutes, St Mirren were without their combative captain, Jim Goodwin, who was swiftly substituted after picking up his now inevitable booking. It was something of a pre-emptive measure from Danny Lennon to spare the player any more disciplinary despair and the St Mirren manager expressed his concerns over what he views as a growing witchhunt of the experienced midfielder.
"I fear for Jim in terms of his career," he said. "Jim can be 10 yards away from a foul and the fans are having a go at him. There was no malice in his fouls. He's no angel but you can't take that desire out of the game.
"As for the display, I thought we were fantastic. At 3-0, you try and pre-warn the players because one goal can change things and in that second half we rolled up our sleeves and showed hunger and desire."
Resplendent in canary yellow shirts, the gathering of St Mirren players looked like a mass break out from the Renfrewshire Cage & Aviary Bird Society. Their illuminating attire was not the only eyecatching thing about the visitors. For the Hibernian supporters, meanwhile, the first half was hands-over-the- eyes stuff.
A delightfully engineered goal in the fourth minute got the positive, purposeful visitors off to a flying start. A sweeping move down the left led to Sean Kelly curling over a cross and the on-rushing McGowan, recently convicted of assaulting a policeman, unleashed some venom on the ball, which struck the post and bounced into the net off the sprawling Ben Williams.
St Mirren were full of menace and capitalised on Hibernian's lack of pace and cover down the flanks. Campbell was instrumental in much of this good work and doubled the tally on 23 minutes. Having bombed down the right, he knocked a pass into John McGinn before continuing his run, accepting the tidy lay-off and slipping a neat finish past Williams.
The hosts, who had lost Ryan McGivern to injury early on, were in tatters and they were rent asunder again just two minutes later. Campbell waltzed unhindered through the flimsy Hibernian rearguard and popped over an inviting cross which Steven Thompson headed home. It was as easy as, well, one, two, three.....and it was nearly four on 41 minutes when McGowan hooked in an attempt which clattered back off the bar.
Hibernian were in need of a major shot in the arm - and no doubt Butcher's boot up the backside - and they were given renewed vigour on the hour when James Collins attacked Alex Harris' corner and thundered a header past Marian Kello.
St Mirren, though, continued to roam forward with expressive, sure-footed adventure while defending doggedly. It looked like they would coast over the line but Collins' header in the last minute set up a tense finale.
"That was the most wretched 45 minutes I've seen from any of my teams," said Butcher. "They were going to have the day off on Monday. . .but I'll have them in."
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