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A decent crowd gathered at the Auld Lady and while Hibs deserve credit for bringing up the largest non OF support all season it was still disappointing to see they failed to fill their section....never understood why given Reekie-Aberdonia is the same distance as Aberdonia-Reekie that we take twice as many to their gaffs than they bring to ours....a mystery on a par wi why Roadsweepers all wear Shellick toaps.
As for the game pretty much agree wi Mowbray the scoreline flattered us and the only real fitba came fae the Cabbages...a case of them being the better side but us the better team perhaps? Hibs almost had us behind when Murray had a Whelanesque style sitter miss...up the park for us ...a corner and Russ rises imperiously and in true David Coleman style it was .....ONENIL!!
We're still bouncin as Foster has a pop fae distance...keeper saves...back to Mackie..header...keeper (showing rubberesque qualities) somehow scrambles it onto the bar before it falls to Whelan to trundle into the net.
Ah the mystery of an enigma wrapped up in a riddle that is Noel Whelan esq (Professional Footballer). Now a few weeks back I likened Whelan to the Dons Cult (thats with an 'n') Legend that was Keith Edwards and it'll take mair than a few goals and one or two decent games before I join in wi the "Wheeeeeeeeeee-Lan"" chants, standing ovations and the like but I am will to concede he is approaching the Cult (no 'n') status of say Willem Van Der Ark...in that he "puts himself about", kicks a few folk and is generally worth it for the entertainment value alone. He's a canny player and we're now seein what we were paying him for just a pity we had to wait until f*ckin March to see it!
After much merrymakin and group huggin on the terraces we sat back hoping we'd see us go for the jugualr and run in a few more....didnae get it of course we simply did what we've done best all season and drew back into two banks of 4 and simply Hibs knacker themselves out tryin to break us down.
To give Hibs credit they did exactly that and not without a fair bit of skill and guile...especially from O'Connor and when he came on Glass...Riordan (our nemisis so far) simply looked knackered. I fear for Hibs though as while they're brilliiant going forward, they're pretty soft at the back and wi Iain Murray Govan bound in June their central defence will consist of Gary Smith and lets face it the last time Gary Smith and defensive solidity were in the same sentence was sometime around 1993. A case proven when late on Smith inexplicably decided to hoof Foster in the air and Mackie gave us a third which we frankly didnae deserve.
A great result and sets us up quite nicely for the UEFA spot via third but it should be pointed out that third or not we'll still end up 30-40 points behind second. Now that may be considered an acheivement in Gorgie but it's not one we should take much pride in and that while we've made great advances we're still a long long way from being capable of threatening for silverware.
Below the OF the SPL is much of a muchness and the "third force" in any given season is usually the one who make the least mistakes...hence the reason for the ruthlessly effective but awful and violent style that made Levein's Hearts so "successful" in recent years.
There is still a Jamboesque uglyness in our ability to simply shut up shop and out muscle sides but we desperately need some creativity...whether this arrives in the form of Nicholson (highly probably) or the umpteenth return of the Prodigal Son from Forest (he bought a house in Aiberdeen so he's DEFFO comin back dontcha know!!!) we'll await and see.
Christ, grumbling after a stottin 3-0 win over our main Euro rivals!! I know - sad innit - but as Satre said filth means justifying worthy ends so I'll accept it in the short term I'd just like to be actually entertained by the Reds from time to time and this season entertainment has been severely rationed.
The Red Avenger