Hibs cruised through into the quarter-finals of the William Hill Scottish Cup after a comfortable 3-1 victory over Raith Rovers at a windswept Easter Road this afternoon.
Caretaker manager Eddie May made three changes to the starting XI that lost to Celtic in midweek with Stevie Mallan, Marc McNulty and Daryl Horgan replacing Sean Mackie, Ryan Gauld and Oli Shaw.
McNulty had a great chance to open his Hibs’ account with an early strike but his effort was blocked by Raith defender Iain Davidson.
At the other end Ofir Marciano produced a fine save to deny Tony Dingwall.
Hibs gradually took control of the game and Horgan opened the scoring after picking up the ball from Vykintas Slivka before beating Kyle Benedictus at the edge of the area and firing an unstoppable strike high into the net.
John McGlynn’s side fought back and enjoyed a sustained spell of pressure before Hibs added a second in the 37th minute.
Horgan’s shot was deflected into the path of McNulty who cushioned the ball, allowing Slivka to fire the ball into the bottom corner of the net. Hibs wrapped things up in the 58th minute when McNulty controlled Horgan’s clever ball over the top before calmly sliding the ball under the diving Robbie Thomson. Rovers pulled a goal back in the 74th minute when Euan Murray headed home Nathan Flannigan’s corner but Hibs easily held on to secure a place in the quarter final draw.
After the final whistle May told BBC Scotland: “The boys were at a decent standard, scored some very good goals and should’ve probably had a little bit more. The chances we created was very pleasing.
“Raith are going very well in their own league so they’re always going to have spells in the game, we just have to combat that and I thought we did that extremely well.”
Hibs: Marciano, Gray, Hanlon, Milligan (Whittaker 78’), Horgan (Omeonga 65‘), Slivka, McNulty (Shaw 86’), Mallan, Stevenson, Kamberi, McGregor. Substitutes not used: Dabrowski, Nelon, Bigirimana, Mackie.
Raith Rovers: Thomson, Crane, Davidson, Murray, Benedictus, Gillespie, Dingwall (Buchanan 86’), Wedderburn, Nesbit (Duggan 67’), Flanagan, Barjonas (Matthews 79’). Substitutes not used: Lyness, Mckay, Watson, Smith. Referee: Bobby Madden. Attendance: 9,141.
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.
