Hibs celebrated their 140th anniversary with a 1-0 win over Morton but the main talking point after the game was the performance of referee Craig Charleston who denied Hibs three clear penalties and wrongly booked Martin Boyle for diving after the striker had been scythed down in the penalty box.
After a hectic few days which finally saw Scott Allan leaving the club for Celtic, Hibs’ Head Coach Alan Stubbs made three changes to the starting XI that lost to Dumbarton last Saturday.
New signing John McGinn replaced Allan in midfield, Dan Carmichael took over from Sam Stanton in midfield and and Martin Boyle replaced Jason Cummings
Liam Henderson, who joined the club on a year-long loan from Celtic as part of the Allan deal had to be content with a place on the bench.
Morton arrived in confident mood after last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Falkirk and there was a familiar face in the dug out with ex Hibs’ manager Jim Duffy in charge.
Hibs started brightly but in the first six minutes, the referee had missed a blatant penalty when Marvin Bartley was brought down inside the area, missed a handball that would have been more appropriate in a basketball game and ignored a Morton player who threw the ball away to prevent a quick free kick.
After that his performance got worse and in the 35th minute he booked Boyle for diving when everyone in the stadium saw the contact. He added to the fans’ anger by then ticking off Stubbs for complaining.
David Gray then had a point blank header saved by keeper Derek Gaston then had another header cleared off the line as Hibs pressed for an opener.
Morton looked dangerous on the break and Mark Oxley twice produced good saves to keep the scores level.
At half time when the players were leaving the field, the Morton fans sang ‘there’s only one Craig Charleston’ indicating that they knew that they would have been behind but for the referee.
McGinn went close with a thurderbolt from 30 yards in the 53rd minute then Paul Hanlon fired over from six yards.
With the fans starting to get nervous, Jason Cummings replaced Bartley and scored within 30 seconds of coming on. Man of the match Fraser Fyvie picked up the ball in midfield before slotting an inch perfect through ball into the path of Gray. The skipper send a low cross into the danger area and Cummings was on hand to side foot the ball into the net.
Cummings almost added a second moments later but his header from a Lewis Stevenson cross was well saved.
In the 65th minute, referee Charleston denied Hibs another penalty when Cummings was barged in the back to the fury of the fans.
Henderson replaced Carmichael and quickly won the approval of the supporters with his skill and determination.
With six minutes remaining Sam Stanton replaced Boyle and despite a late scare, Hibs held on for the three points.
Hibernian: Oxley, Gray, Hanlon, Fontaine, Stevenson, Bartley,Fyvie, McGinn, Boyle, Malonga, Carmichael. Subs Reguero, Henderson, Stanton, Harris, Cummings, Dunsmore, Martin.
Morton:Gaston, Kilday, Lamie, Miller, Forbes, Johnstone, MacDonald, McCluskey, Pepper,Russell, Gasparotto Subs: Adam, scullion, Barr, Sabajo, Cairnie, Orr, Stevenson
Attendance 8928
Referee Craig Chareston.
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.
