Hibs produced yet another outstanding home performance to demolish Hamilton Academical at Easter Road yesterday and consolidate second position in the table ahead of the international break.
Neil Lennon made two changes to the starting XI that beat St Mirren last week with Vykintas Slivka and Martin Boyle replacing Thomas Agyepong who missed out with a hamstring problem and Daryl Horgan who was listed amongst the substitutes.
Before kick-off both sets of players supported the ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ campaign.
Hibs dominated the opening period but were fortunate not to fall behind when a mistake in the defence allowed Rakish Bingham to latch onto a looping ball from Scott Martin and it took a superb save from Adam Bogdan to keep the scores level.
From then it was one-way traffic and Hibs took a deserved lead in the 25th minute when Florian Kamberi’s shot was deflected into the path of Boyle who fired the ball high into the net.
He almost added a second moments later but fired just wide from the edge of the box.
The hosts made it 2-0 in the 34th minute when Stevie Mallan’s strike from the edge of the box deflected past Gary Woods into the corner of the net.
Six minutes later Boyle turned provider by setting up Emerson Hyndman who calmly passed the ball past Woods to score his first goal for the club.
Woods kept the score at three with a superb save from the impressive Hyndman just before the break.
Lewis Stevenson went close with a volley from a Mallan corner as Hibs looked to increase their lead.
The fourth arrived in the 72nd minute when Mallan fired a tremendous strike to grab his 9th goal of the season, all from outside the penalty box.
Former Hibs’ Scottish Cup winning striker James Keatings replaced Martin and received a standing ovation from the home fans before substitute Horgan was denied on the goal-line by a block from Matthew Kilgallon.
Kamberi made it five with a powerful shot after good work by Horgan and almost grabbed his second after stabbing the ball past Woods only for Kilgallon to knock the ball into the net trying a clearance to make the final score 6-0.
Special mention has to go to Efe Ambrose who strolled through the game demonstrating the form that won him over 50 caps for Nigeria and also Vykintas Slivka who showed why he was on Juventus books with some impressive midfield play.
Hibs: Bogdan, Gray (Nelom 81’), Milligan, Slivka, Boyle (Gullan 74’), Mallan, Stevenson, Hyndman (Horgan 65’), Kamberi, Ambrose, Porteous. Substitutes not used: Marciano, Whittaker, Bartley, McGregor.
Hamilton Academical: Woods, McGowan, McMann (Gordon 60’), Tshiembe, Kilgallon, Imrie, Bingham (Taiwo 73’), Want, Martin (Keatings 73’), Boyd, Brustad. Substitutes not used: Marsden, Bloomfield, Penny, Kelly.
Referee: Don Robertson.
Attendance: 16,857.
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.
