Hibs produced a magnificent performance at Easter Road this afternoon to secure their biggest winning margin over Rangers for over seventy three years.
Before the game, the players and fans lined up for a minutes’s silence to pay respect to the six people killed in the tragic events in Glasgow earlier this week.
Head Coach Alan Stubbs selected his usual starting XI with David Gray playing with a niggling groin injury which will soon require an operation.
The gamble paid off within seven minutes when Liam Craig sent a cross into the Rangers’ box and the ball fell to Gray just outside the area. With fans expecting a first time effort, the former Manchester United defender calmly took a touch before unleashing a superb strike which flew into the top right hand corner of the net.
Four minutes later, three sides of Easter Road errupted when Jason Cummings (pictured) doubled Hibs’ advantage after Craig got onto the end of a Scott Allan cross and managed to hook the ball into the path of the teenager who slotted the ball home from two yards.
Gray then sent a dangerous cross along the face of the Rangers goal but no-one was available to tap the ball home then the Rangers’ keeper fumbled a Cummings’ drive only for Scott Robertson to fire the loose ball inches wide of the far post.
Former Hearts’ midfielder was lucky to escape a red card for a nasty challenge on Allan before new Rangers boss Kenny McDowall replaced him with Kyle Hutton on 34 minutes to ensure that his infamous temper did not see his team reduced to 10 men.
Rangers started the second half brightly with Kris Boyd coming on at half time however he was lucky that the referee did not noting his elbow into the face of Craig or his reckless challenge on Danny Handling.
On the hour mark, Rangers won a corner and as they were about to take it, Lee McCulloch pushed Paul Hanlon to the ground. Referee Bobby Madden immediately blew his whistle then to the astonishment to everyone in the stadium warned HANLON about his behaviour !!!!!!!!!
Hibs put the game beyond doubt on 62 minutes when man of the match Allan sent a sliderule pass to Robertson who calmly curled it beyond Simonsen into the net.
Nicky Law almost pulled one ack when his shot beat Mark Oxley but Liam Fontaine cleared the ball off the line.
Lewis Stevenson then did well to cut the ball back to Handling who was unmarked eight yards from goal but his strike flow narrowly past the post.
A few minutes later Allan cut through the Rangers midfield before finding Craig with a delecate chip and the captain celebrated his 28th birthday with a stunning volley, his first eague goal since scoring the winner in the Edinburgh new year derby almost a year ago.
The last time Hibs scored four goals against Rangers was in 1964 when Jock Stein’s men won 4-2 at Ibrox.
The last time Rangers lost by four goals was in 2000 when a Celtic side containing a certain Alan Stubbs won 6-2 at Parkhead.
Hibernian: Oxley, Gray (Booth 73’), Hanlon, Fontaine, Robertson, Craig, Stevenson, Handling (Kennedy 86’), Allan, Malonga, Cummings (Stanton 86‘). Substitutes not used: Perntreou, Harris, Heffernan, Sinclair.
Rangers: Simonsen, Smith, Aird (Boyd 46’), Wallace, McCulloch, Law, Black (Hutton 34’), Clark, Miller (Shiels 82’), Foster, McGregor. Substitutes not used: Robinson, Mohsni, Daly, Faure.
Referee: Bobby Madden.
Attendance: 15,261.
Photo by John Preece
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.
