Steven Whittaker has praised the contribution of team-mate Scott Allan as Hibs opened their league campaign with a 1-0 victory over St Mirren at Easter Road on Saturday.
Given the Saints’ dreadful Betfred League Cup run, Hibs were expected to win comfortably however Jim Goodwin’s side were well organised and looked dangerous on the break.
It took Hibs 85 minutes to break down the ‘Buddies’ defence when Allan latched onto a great pass from Christian Doidge before beating two defenders and firing the ball into the net.
The goal sparked relief around the stadium, but Hibs should have been a goal in front before that when Florian Kamberi, for the second time this season had a perfectly good goal ruled out for offside.
On both occasion the Swiss striker was yards onside but thankfully neither decision proved costly as Hibs won the games.
After the game Whittaker said: “It is difficult when a team comes here and sits in like St Mirren did. They wanted to hit us on the counter and at times they looked dangerous.
“We still managed to create a number of chances and on another day, if we had got an earlier goal, their plan has to change and it goes back in our favour.
“The longer the game goes on it gets harder. The passes start to slow down, we were running out of ideas, but we have someone like Scott to bring us some magic.
“Scott showed his qualities all day and he had a chance to score earlier when his effort came back off the post. We know if we get him on the ball then there will be goalscoring chances created for us. He is a great player to have in the team.
“His assets are going forward but he is willing to put the work in as well. Most attacking players are more interested in creating rather than defending and I understand that.
“He has been brought here to come in and create for us and chip in with a few goals and he has done that. He has got off to a great start in the league and long may that continue.”
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.
