Dundee United twice come from behind to deny Hibs victory

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 28^th
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