Hibs left Fir Park empty handed after defensive errors, a red card and the miss of the season culminated in a 2-0 defeat to the Motherwell tonight
Hibs head coach David Gray kept faith with the same starting XI that beat Dundee 2-0 at the weekend.
The only change on the bench saw the return of Miguel Chaiwa, to the matchday squad in place of Dylan Levitt.
Jens Berthel Askou made five changes despite winning quite comfortably over Kilmarnock on Saturday.
Liam Gordon, Tom Sparrow, Oscar Priestman, Regan Charles-Cook, and Elijah Just replaced Emmanuel Longelo, Lukas Fadinger, Ibrahim Said, Callum Slattery, and Callum Hendry.
Hibs fell behind in the 18th minute when Jack Iredale carelessly lost possession to Tawanda Maswanhise who found Elijah Just inside the area.
His shot struck Grant Hanley on the arm at point blank range. No penalty was given but after a lengthy VAR check referee Duncan Nicolson was called to the screen and pointed to the spot.
Given an identical ‘penalty’ was not given at Ibrox on Saturday, Gray was rightly furious.
Maswanhise made no mistake from 12-yards sending the Hibs keeper the wrong way.
Moments later it was 2-0 and once again the goal came from a careless pass, this time from Nicky Cadden.
Just raced into the box, squared the ball to Tom Sparrow, but Dan Barlaser’s clearance struck Nicky cadden and fell to Just who fired it into the net.
Things then went from bad to worse for Hibs when Hanley was harshly adjudged to have brought down Maswanhise on the edge of the area. Initially the falg was raised for offside but another VAR check ended with Hanley being shown a red card.
Gray then replaced Iredale and Nicky Cadden with Jordan Obita and Warren O’Hora.
Just before the break Kieron Bowie slid in Martin Boyle who rounded the keeper and stabbed the ball toward at empty net, but there was no power on it and Johnny Koutroumbis cleared it off the line.
Six added minutes were awarded at the end of the first half and Hibs didn’t touch the ball as the Well players easily kept possession.
The hosts started the second half in similar fashion and took advantage of the extra man by easily keeping possession.
On a rare attack, a Dan Barlaser volley flew well wide.
Motherwell almost made it 3-0 on the hour mark when Oscar Priestman’s curling a low effort rebounded off the post. The ball fell to Sparrow who fired over the bar.
Bowie and Barlaser were replaced by Thibault Klidje and Miguel Chaiwa.
Callum Slattery went close with a powerful strike from the edge of the area as Motherwell were treating the game as a training exercise.
Raphael Sallinger did well to deny Regan Charles-Cook.
Bolye was replaced by Elie Youan for the last 10-minutes but Motherwell held on to secure the win which moved them level on points with Hibs.
Hibs now face Celtic at Easter Rad on Sunday with a noon kick off.
Motherwell: Ward, Koutroumbis, McGinn, Welsh, Gordon, Sparrow, Watt, Priestman, Charles-Cook, Just, Maswanhise.
Substitutes: Connelly, Balmer, Slattery, Fadinger, Osong, Ross, Longelo, Hendry, Said.
Hibernian: Sallinger, Hanley, Bushiri, Iredale, C Cadden, Mulligan, Barlaser, N Cadden, McGrath, Bowie, Boyle.
Substitutes: Smith, O’Hora, Youan, Newell, Chaiwa, Klidje, Obita, Hoilett, Megwa.
