Hibernian 2

Celtic1

Scorers: Hibernian - Brebner (64 pen), Thomson (81); Celtic - Varga (56)

Hibs eventually thrived in this CIS Insurance Cup quarter-final last night which might have started blandly but quickly became enthralling.

Denied a regiment of players, Bobby Williamson's young Hibs side made a mighty game of this, clawing back from a goal down to secure this hungry and eager win. Their reward is a semi-final clash against Rangers in February.

Celtic might not care much for such a bauble as the CIS Cup but this won't matter to Hibs. Williamson's players exhibited a remarkable energy for the fray and eventually made Celtic pay for a series of squandered first-half chances.

The crowd may have seemed paltry inside Easter Road but the celebratory racket at the end of this match must not have been unlike VE Day on Princes Street.

In a remarkable closing three-minute burst, Scott Brown fired in a shot which cracked against Rab Douglas' right-hand post before Henrik Larsson missed a sitter of a header with seconds remaining. In days of yore they would have called it a humdinger.

Good game, shame about the empty seats. There can't often have been as few people at a Hibs-Celtic match since the drab, bleak nights of the old League Cup in its death-throes in the 1970s, or possibly even earlier. Just 9246 were here and, with Christmas a week away, and poor five's cameras being subjected to this tournament, the denizens of Auld Reekie obviously had better things to do.

A decent throng, as usual, arrived through from Glasgow but, with just five minutes to go before kick-off, and next to nobody here, Martin O'Neill must have wondered if he was back in the Vauxhall Conference with Wycombe . . . or was it the Beazer Homes?

There was a danger this match would not rise above a tinny training-ground rattle before the pace and passion of both sides provided remarkable fervour.

Bobby Williamson had reason to be bleaker than usual last night. The lugubrious Hibs manager was without Ian Murray, Roland Edge, Colin Murdock, Yannick Zambernardi and others because of a mixture of injury and suspension, leaving Hibs with a callow lack of fame and notoriety about them.

Young men like Jonathan Baillie and Steven Whittaker were roped in, a fate Williamson hadn't told them about earlier, just in case, as he explained earlier, they wouldn't be able to sleep and their nerves would jangle. Decent, caring Boab.

It seemed a little amazing, for all that Hibs had rattled Douglas' bar, that the homeside remained level at the interval. In the first half Williamson's team certainly did lots of nice things but it was Celtic who created openings. Larsson flashed a header wide, Chris Sutton forced another header weakly at Daniel Andersson, and then Sutton, somehow, struck Andersson's bar rather than shoot beneath it.

Hibs, perhaps inspired by Derek Riordan's cross-cum-shot which pranged off Celtic's bar, did at least finish the opening period with a splurge of pressure, and it fairly roused the Hibs fans. Not for the first time, though, with Hibs starting to make waves against the Old Firm, they found themselves behind.

Celtic had lost Sutton to injury before Liam Miller's 55th-minute corner was met by Stanislav Varga, whose deft header sailed past Andersson. On the Hibs far post, Kevin Thomson's despairing header came too late, the ball having clearly crossed the line.

Hibs, though, had a terrific sprightliness about them, and, just, as at the end of the first half, they fairly made a game of this. McManus' burst down the inside-right channel cut a swathe through Celtic's defenders and, when his cross blazed across Rab Douglas' goal without a taker, you felt this would be another of those Hibs nights. Yet the home team would be level within moments.

McManus's corner, in one of those daft moments, was punched in the air by John Kennedy when the defender found himself exposed. John Rowbotham had no hesitation in awarding the penalty and Grant Brebner smashed his spot-kick past Douglas.

From there, only one side looked intent on winning and it was Hibs. The crowd were agog at their efforts and Celtic looked increasingly rattled. After 82 minutes, Hibs duly scored a thoroughly merited second goal.

Pressure by Williamson's side was often flaky, and nothing much looked on for Kevin Thomson when the ball broke to him 20 yards out.

The youngster, though, fairly cracked his shot past the sprawling Douglas, who was caught unawares by the ball's pace. It provided some rare gloating for Hibs over Celtic.

Hibs (4-4-2) Andersson; Whittaker, Baillie, Doumbe, Smith; Brown, Brebner, Thomson, Riordan; McManus (Dobbie 78), O'Connor Subs: Hyldgaard, Nicol, Reid, Shields Booked Smith, Whittaker, Thomson

Celtic (4-4-2) Douglas; Kennedy, Balde, Varga, Crainey; Miller, Lambert (Beattie 81), Thompson, Wallace; Sutton (Maloney 49), Larsson. Subs: Laursen, Guppy, Marshall Booked Thompson, Kennedy

Referee John Rowbotham