Hibs took all three points in a hard-fought encounter with Motherwell at the Penny Cars Stadium (formerly the Excelsior Stadium) in Airdrie yesterday.
Head Coach Dean Gibson made one change to the starting XI that drew 1-1 with Spartans in midweek with Eildh Adams replacing Kirsty Morrision.
Hibs created the first chance when Collette Cavanagh found Ellis Notley but her effort went high over the bar.
After the break Laura McGregor did well to save an effort from Notley after the Motherwell defence failed to deal with a corner from the left.
Hibs opened the scoring in the 51st minute after good work down the right by Rachael Boyle who squared the ball for Adams and the striker stabed the ball into the top right hand corner of the net from close range.
McGregor then did well to save a volley from Carla Boyce as Hibs continued to attack and look for a second
In the 64th minute goal-scorer Adams was replaced by Morrison.
Motherwell almost equalised when Nicole Puller fired in a powerful strike from distance but Hibs’ keeper Emily Mutch produced a fine diving save.
With five minutes remaining Ria McCafferty replaced Boyce and Hibs held on for a valuable victory.
The result, coupled with Rangers emphatic victory over The Spartans at Ainslie Park sees Hibs leapfrog their Edinburgh rivals into fourth place.
After the final whistle Gibson told Hibs Media: “It was a pretty poor performance. We were well below the standards that we set probably for the majority of the season. That’s the first time we’ve played a game and got three points that we probably didn’t deserve if I’m being 100% honest.
“I think Motherwell deserved a point out of the game but we’ll take it. How many times have I stood here on days we’ve played well and not had the rub of the green and we’ve not taken three points that we probably did deserve.
“So I’m not going to complain about taking three points but we know that our performance levels have to be a lot higher than that going into the next three fixtures.
“The players have got away with one today but we know that we need to pick ourselves up and we need to rise to the standards we’ve set in previous games to make sure we can be competitive against Rangers.
“We should be going into that game with confidence. We are four unbeaten and have built up a momentum and we know we are capable of scoring goals and keeping clean sheets and if we play to our strengths we look very dangerous.”
Collette Cavanagh added: “It was a weird game. I think we did well in parts of the game but when it gets to the final third we over play it and just need to do the simple stuff and shoot. If you don’t shoot you don’t score so we need to do a lot more shooting. Overall we got three points and it was a good team goal for Eildh as well.”
Hibs: Mutch, Leishman, Muir, Eddie, Boyce, Adams, Cavanagh, Gallagher, Notley, Murray, Boyle, Adams. Subs: McCafferty, Morrison, Donald, Hunter, Rice
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.
