Hibs came from two goals down to draw with St Mirren at a wet Easter Road this afternoon.
Head Coach Jack Ross made three changes to the starting XI that beat Dundee United on Tuesday with Steven Whittaker, Tom James and Adam Jackson making way for David Gray, Darren McGregor and Stephane Omeonga.
The three transfer day signings, Paul McGinn, Greg Docherty and Marc McNulty all started on the bench.
An extraordinary first half saw the visitors take a shock lead with goals by Conor McCarthy and Tony Andreu.
Then the hosts bounced back before the break with efforts from Scott Allan and Christian Doidge.
Allan came close to stealing a winner when his corner hit the crossbar 10 minutes from time.
Victories for Livingston and Kilmarnock means Jack Ross’ Hibs are four points adrift in sixth place and four above eighth.
A point offers St Mirren little solace near the bottom of the table, where they now sit just three points above bottom spot.
Reaction & as it happened
Hibs fight back to claim point
There were very early hints that we might be in for a capital cracker when Doidge missed an absolute sitter in the second minute, after Darryl Horgan planted a perfect cross right on to his forehead. His blushes were spared by the lineman’s flag for offside.
St Mirren opened the scoring in the 13th minute after Cameron Macpherson’s corner was headed into the net by Conor McCarthy.
Five minutes later Ilkay Durmus’s beat Gray on the left wing and found Tony Andreu who did well to slot the ball past Ofir Marciano.
Hibs pulled one back when Joe Newell found Scott Allan who surged forward before finding Martin Boyle on the wing. Boyle looked up and sent a low cross into Allan’s path and the midfielder slotted the ball into the net.
St Mirren continued to attack and almost regained their two goal advantage when a Macpherson free kick was badly fumbled by Marciano, who recovered before any major damage was done.
Hibs equalised in the 39th minute when Darly Horgan found Omeonga who dinked a cross into the penalty area which Christian Doidge headed past the diving St Mirren keeper.
McGinn replaced Gray at half time and Hibs almost took the lead when McGregor met Allan’s free kick with a powerful header. only to watch Vaclav Hladky tip the ball away for a corner.
Moments later Docherty replaced Newell then McNulty took over from Horgan and entered the field to a standing ovation from the Hibs’ fans.
Allan almost won it when his corner struck the crossbar directly with 10-minutes remaining.
Allan then picked up an injury but played on despite being in obvious pain.
The game ended with honours even and Hibs remain in 6th place, four points behind Livingston.
After the game Ross told BBC Scotland: “Over the last two or three months our home record has been good. However, the circumstances of the game changed that a little bit.
“We had to show character and resilience to come back. It wasn’t one of our better days overall but when you have a game like that and still take something from it then that’s encouraging.”
Hibs: Marciano, Gray, Hanlon, Horgan, Doidge, Boyle, Newell, Stevenson, Allan, McGregor, Omeonga. Subs: Bogdan, McGinn, McNulty, Docherty, James, Hallberg, Murray
St Mirren: Hladky, Waters McCarthy, Flynn, Obika, Andreu, Durmus, Foley, Morias, Famewo, MacPherson. Subs: Hodson, McAllister, McGrath, Cooke, Lyness, Jakubiak, Mullen.
Referee David Munro
Attendance 16,325
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.
