Lavety gets a real kick out of relegation dogfight

St Johnstone midfielder Attila Sekerlioglu and Hibernian striker Barry Lavety certainly will not forget their tussle in a hurry. For 90 minutes they indulged in a battle that took in the good, the bad, and the ugly side of football.

The marvellously-named Austrian was booked for what looked like an attempt to taunt the Hibs fans after the St Johnstone goal while, after one unsavoury incident, Lavety declined an attempted hand-shake from Sekerlioglu, who had been fouling him.

Afterwards, Sekerlioglu claimed that Lavety had kicked him a couple of times when the referee's back was turned and half joked it was lucky for Lavety that his side were not playing Hibs again this season. For his part, Lavety was more diplomatic, saying he could not remember anything about incidents between the players.

Away from the battle between the two, this was a match about Hibs and their inability to take three important points in the fight against relegation.

Despite the fact they face second-bottom club Motherwell at home next week, it seems too late to save them from the drop.

If there is hope for Alex McLeish it is that he seems to have reignited the slumbering Tony Rougier, who equalised with a penalty and had his best game in a Hibs jersey for a long time. Also, young Grant Brebner - who McLeish has on loan from Manchester United - showed a maturity beyond his years, took a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and dictated most of the Easter Road side's moves.

Perhaps the most emotive comments about the despair the threat of relegation brings came from young Lavety who played for five seasons with St Mirren in the lower division. He agreed that he could not stomach the thought of returning there with Hibs and made it clear they would fight to the end to try and stop that happening.

''I don't particularly fancy playing in the first division again and we'll do all we can to stay up,'' said Lavety. ''The manager has brought new freshness, new ideas to Easter Road and everybody has responded to him. The players aren't feeling the pressure too much and I like to think our performances showed that. I'm enjoying playing now, even though the results don't seem to be going our way. Hopefully, we can turn that round from next week.

''There is a fighting spirit about the place and things have improved. Everyone knows how important the game against Motherwell will be.''

Manager McLeish admitted his team have to win against Motherwell next week to hang on to their chance of avoiding the drop. ''I knew I had a tough fight when I took the job,'' he said. ''The fight goes on despite the fact things have been made a lot more difficult by the Motherwell win against Rangers, a great result for them.''

McLeish conceded that there had been a heavy responsibility on both his frontmen, Stevie Crawford, who was substituted near the end, and Lavety, to create chances, a responsibility which he accepted was a bit unfair bearing in mind both players' inexperience.

St Johnstone manager Paul Sturrock, who had made five changes from the side which lost in the Scottish Cup to Falkirk, would have been happy that the point they gained stopped the rot.

He fielded new #250,000 Paddy Connolly from Airdrie at the start, and Northern Ireland internationalist George O'Boyle was dropped.

Full back John McQuillan had put the Perth side ahead in 61 minutes, but it was his foul on Lavety that gave away the last-minute penalty from which Rougier salvaged a point for Hibs.

Said Sturrock: ''I felt the changes I made

following the game against Falkirk were merited and the players responded to that challenge.''

Next league games: St Johnstone - Rangers (a), Hibernian - Motherwell (h).