Hibs move into eighth place with a 3-1 home victory over Ross County

 Hibs move off the bottom of the table and into eighth place with a 3-1 victory over Ross County at Easter Road. 

Hibs head coach David Gray makes three changes to the side that lost 3-0 to Celtic last weekend. 

Chris Cadden replaced Lewis Miller at right-back, while Junior Hoilett and Dwight Gayle also come into the starting XI, with Jordan Obita dropping to the bench and Mykola Kuharevich missing out entirely through injury. 

Photos by Ian Jacobs

A minute’s silence was observed in memory of Hibs legend Alex Edwards who sadly passed away earlier this week. 

The visitors started on the front foot and in the opening minute Jordan Smith made a tremendous save to deny Ross County forward Noah Chilvers. 

Then from the resultant corner Scott Allardice’s header bounced off the post, and Eli Campbell was on hand to nod home the rebound from a tight angle. 

A lengthy VAR check for offside ended with the referee pointing to the centre spot. 

Ross County continued to press forward and were unlucky not to extend their lead before Junior Hoilett almost grabbed an equaliser coming in at the back post but his effort went wide. 

At the other end Smith turned Josh Nisbet’s powerful left-footed strike round the post, before a short corner from the visitors was unconvincingly cleared. 

With the Hibs fans getting ready to boo the side off at the break, Gray men found an equaliser when Hoilett floated a ball to the near post and Dwight Gayle headed into an empty net. With Jack Hamilton caught in no-man’s land. 

Hibs had the chance to take the lead when George Harmon dragged Gayle to the ground and conceded penalty. 

After another lengthy VAR check Nicky Cadden took responsibility, but Hamilton saved his powerful effort. 

Moments later Hibs were awarded a second penalty when Ryan Leak pulled substitute Josh Campbell’s shirt right in front of the referee. 

Elie Youan took the resultant penalty and sent the ball into the corner of the net to the relief of the home supporters. 

The game was almost wrapped up when a back pass took a bobble and Hamilton sliced the ball which spun behind him and trickled inches wide of the post. 

Ross County pressed for an equaliser but late into stoppage time Youan won possession high up the field and set up Campbell to score the third. 

The win sees hibs move from bottom of the table to 8^th place. 

After the final whistle Gray told BBC Scotland: “I’m delighted with the win. That’s the most important thing. Would I have liked us to play better? 100%. We’ve played better this year and not picked up points. 

“Credit to Ross County. They started the game far better than we did. Once we settled down a bit, I thought we came into the game. 

“The goal just before half-time was huge for us. It makes the team talk slightly different and the players reacted really well to that. 

“We started the second half on the front foot, we created numerous chances – still lacked a bit of quality – but managed to get ourselves in front. 

“That’s three penalties we’ve missed this season. Elie steps up and says he wants to take [the second one], which shows courage. From that moment, we had to defend a lot, but did it well. To then score on the break came at an important time. 

“The character’s definitely been questioned, and the result was the most important thing today. It definitely looks much better with three points on the board. 

“If we don’t kick on from here, it can go in the other direction. The next four games will be difficult, but it’s teams round about us. Hopefully this is a turning point in the season.” 

Hibs: Smith, C Cadden, O’Hora, Bushiri, Iredale, N Cadden, Triantis, Newell, Youan, Hoilett, Gayle. 

Substitutes: Bursik, Levitt, Doyle-Hayes, Boyle, McKirdy, Kwon, Obita, Moriah-Welsh, Campbell. 

Ross County: Hamilton, Brown, Wright, Lopata, Campbell, Harmon, Allardice, Randall, Nisbet, Chilvers, Samuel. 

Substitutes: Amissah, Telfer, Leak, Efete, Loturi, White, Hale, Reid, Denholm.