Hibs suffered a narrow defeat to Motherwell at Fir Park last night in an evenly fought contest.
Neil Lennon made three changes to the starting XI that defeated Elgin City on Saturday with Steven Whittaker and Stephane Omeonga replacing Sean Mackie and Vykintas Slivka whilst Adam Bogdan also dropped out of the squad completely and was replaced in goal by Ofir Marciano.
New signing Omeonga looked lively and created the first opportunity of the match setting up Ryan Gauld but his volley flew over the bar.
The hosts fought back and Marciano was called into action to deny Gboly Ariyibi and Curtis Main as play raged from end to end.
Flo Kamberi sent an acrobatic volley over the bar before Ryan Porteous tried an ambitious overhead kick which was also too high.
Neither side was able to take control and Daryl Horgan went close with a curling effort and Main should have done better with a tame shot from the edge of the area
Ryan Porteous was forced to leave the field with a knee injury and was replaced by Mackie as Hibs reverted to a back four.
Motherwell took the lead just before the break when David Turnbull completed a fine move by slotting the ball past Marciano from 18-yards.
In the 60th minute Gauld set up Horgan but the Irishman’s lob flew well wide.
‘Well were dangerous on the break and Marciano produced a great save to deny Connor Sammon who struck the post with the rebound.
With time running out Florian Kamberi’s shot was parried by Mark Gillespie before Horgan tried to set up Oli Shaw from the rebound but the youngster was unable to connect from a few yards away and Motherwell held on to secure the three points.
Motherwell: Gillespie, Tait, Aldred, Campbell, Main (Sammon, 76’), Ariyibi (McCormack, 64’), Grimshaw, Dunne, Rodriguez, Turnbull, Hastie (Bigirimana, 87’). Unused substitutes: Ferguson, McHugh, Hartley, Johnson.
Hibs: Marciano, McGregor, Porteous (Mackie, 28’), Hanlon, Whittaker, Mallan, Bartley (Shaw, 78’), Omeonga (Slivka, 45’), Horgan, Gauld, Kamberi. Unused subsitutes: Dabrowski, Gray, Nelom, Murray. Referee:
Bobby Madden. Attendance: 4,090
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.
