Hibs moved into the play off positions following their biggest league win in over two years this afternoon after comprehensively beating Livingston 4-0 at the Energy Assets Arena.
Goals from Dominique Malonga, Danny Handling , Dylan McGeough and Paul Heffernan ensured the three points headed to Easter Road and leaves the players in confident mood ahead of next weeks derby against table topping Hearts.
Stubbs was forced to play Callum Booth in the centre of the defence alongside Paul Hanlon after normal first choice Jordon Forster called off due to an injury.
Club captain Liam Craig was forced to take a seat on the bench and was replaced by Handling.
Hibs started brightly and should have opened the scoring in the first few minutes when Lewis Stevenson set up Malonga but the big striker’s was easily saved by Jamieson.
There was controversy off the pitch when a flare was let off amongst the Hibs’ fans which resulted in a youngster being taken away for medical treatment.
After dominating possession, the visitors took a deserved lead when Darren Jamieson fumbled a David Gray cross and Malonga was on hand to slam the ball high into the net to register his fourth goal for the club.
Jamieson must hate playing Hibs as the last time he did, he conceded a goal from a Mark Oxley clearance.
Allan almost added a second before the break but his shot rebounded back off the post with the keeper beaten.
Livingston almost equalised in the 50th minute but Gray was on hand to clear an unchallenged header off the goal line.
Three minutes later Danny Handling doubled the scoring after good work by Scott Allan and Cummings much to he delight of the travelling supporters.
With 20 minutes remaining Hibs sealed the win after a great run by Cummings resulted in a penalty kick being awarded when he was brought down by the Lions’ skipper and although he wanted to take the spot kick, as did Malonga, designated taker McGeough accepted the responsibility and calmly slotted the ball into the top left half corner of the net.
Just before the end, a fine cross from Lewis Stevenson was poked into the net by Heffernan to cap an excellent afternoon’s work from everyone involved.
Livingston: Jamieson, Fordyce , Sives, Talbot, McKenna,(Ogleby) Jacobs, (Rutherford) O’Brien, Jacobs, Glen, White, Burchill (Hippolyte)
Hibs: Oxley, Gray, Stevenson, Hanlon, Booth, Allan, Robertson, Handling, (Harris) McGeough, Malonga, (Stanton) Cummings (Heffernan)
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
