Dundee United twice came from behind to deny Hibs victory in a hard fought William Hill Scottish Cup tie at Tannadice this afternoon.
Jack Ross made two changes to the starting XI that lost to Livingston ahead of the winter break with Ryan Porteous and Steven Whittaker replaced Darren McGregor and Vykintas Slivka.
Hibs started brightly and Florian Kamberi was unlucky not to open the scoring in the opening minutes, but his powerful strike was cleared off the line by Mark Connolly.
The visitors continued to attack and opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Scott Allan found Martin Boyle on the right wing. Boyle cut inside and slid a perfect pass into the path of Christian Doidge who calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net to the delight of the large travelling support.
Hibs should have doubled their lead eight minutes later when Boyle broke free and set up Melker Hallberg, but his first-time shot was well saved by Benjamin Siegrist.
Allan then set up Kamberi but his cross was deflected and kicked away by the United keeper.
United equalised against the run of play in the third minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half when Ian Harkes’ pass found Lawrence Shankland inside the area, and he was able to shrug off the attention of Lewis Stevenson before tucking the ball past Ofir Marciano.
David Gray replaced the injured Jason Naismith at the break and the hosts almost took the lead just after the restart but a fine tackle from Paul Hanlon cleared the danger.
Moments later Kamberi raced down the left, before finding Allan who checked and rolled the ball to Boyle who fired an unstoppable drive past Siegrist from 25 yards.
McGregor replaced the injured Porteous before Kamberi almost made it 3-1 with a powerful strike which Siegrist parried into the path of Gray but his effort flew well over.
There appeared to be little danger when with 16 minutes remaining substitute Louis Appere took possession on the left, but he cut inside and curled a superb low effort past Marciano to find the net via the post.
Doidge almost won the tie in the final minute when he controlled Hanlon’s pass on his chest but Siegrist was out quickly to block the shot.
After the game Doidge told BBC Scotland: “We trained all week on having a good start and getting that early goal helped us going into the break but we were disappointed to draw. I think we had more chances including that one right at the death and with all the games coming up we are going to have a very busy schedule now. We fancy ourselves at Easter Road against anyone so we will be looking forward to it.”
Boyle added: “They are flying in the Championship so we knew it would be a tough game. We lost that goal in the second half so we knew they would come out of the traps but we pinned them back and nullified their chances but they scored a good goal at the end but we have to do better.”
The replay will take place at Easter Road on Tuesday 28th January.
Dundee United: Siegrist, Smith, Watson, Connolly, Robson, Butcher, Harkes, McMullan, Powers, Pawlett, Shankland. Substitutes: Sprole, Reynolds, Sow, Mehmet, Glass, King, Appere.
Hibs: Marciano, Naismith, Porteous, Hanlon, Stevenson, Hallberg, Whittaker, Allan, Boyle, Kamberi, Doidge. Substitutes: Gray, Horgan, Slivka, Newell, McGregor, Bogdan, Shaw
Referee Kevin Clancy
Attendance 9,400
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.
