The View Fae The Red Side vs Mowbray's Boy Band

Much was made of Hibs being patched up, but with a wing back at centre half, a centre half at right back and a winger at left back we could hardly be described as being at full strength either, and truth is we did enough in the first half alone to warrant victory by a larger margin.

Smith and Snoyl freaked them oot doon the wings and whipped in a few tasty balls and with Seve and Demps bustling and bursting oot the middle Hibs were on the old back foot for almost all the opening 45.

Indeed they seemed to have taken their tactics for dealing with Snoyl from watching the Incredible Hulk/Six Million Dollar Man...you ken the thing in these shows where no matter how slowly the bad guys ran our hero would run even slower and still catch them (usually with an incredibly even slower leaping dive)?

Well, Hibs tried to deal wi Ferne by running incredibly slowly in front of him...it was a moderately successful tactic provided of course Snoyl ran in a straight line.

Now when Pony Muirhead was our left sided creative genius such tactics would have shut him and us down...Snoyl after 2 or 3 attempts at running over Hibees' backs quickly realised all he had to do was cut outside or whip in earlier balls.

He may only be a passing sensation here on a short term loan, but having a genuine threat down both flanks has undoubtedly made us an infinitely better side than the one I last saw huffing and puffing to a goalless draw with the pisspoor Pars.

The goal we deserved came after a series of corners and to be honest words cannae really do it justice...Snoyl swung in a corner from the right...skiffed off a Hibee...fell to Seve 12 yards oot parallel with the left edge of the 6 yard box and he hammered it sweetly into the top right corner.

The sort of stunning strike that makes you ask pointless rhetorical questions of the guy next to ye like "Did ye f*ckin see 'at?"...as if he's gonna reply "Naw I was doin ma macramé".

As for Hibs in the first half, well Riordan had a free kick and...er...that was about it.

At half time we were entertained by primary school kids having 4 a side kickabouts, and mild amusement was had watchin a kid wearing shorts that even Hughie Gallacher would have described as a 'bit baggy' tryin to run into a head wind...but news also came through that all the results we need looked like coming off, though on a pedantic point Saturday was not the first day we'd 'cheered' news of a Rangers goal as I recall a muted grunt when they scored against Hibs on the last day last season.

Into the second half and Hibs at least came out and tried to make it a game...they never really threatened but they forced a few corners and Riordan got the 'Y' treatment whenever he came over, but Hibs could have played until July and not scored.

Time for mair mangling on the English language but Hibs are like a boy band album - a few tracks you secretly quite like but the rest just weak Euro pap filler...best summed up when Mowbray inexplicably replaced Riordan with Konte...quite why he would remove the only moderate threat we were facing with someone like Konte who appears to be completely lacking in any fitba DNA...I swear at the end of the game he went to volley it with his right, it hit his standing left foot and went 30 yards in the opposite direction (though perhaps given his record against them, Mowbray wanted to guarantee he didnae play Caley again).

As for us in the second half...er, patchy if I'm being generous. Dempsey had a decent first half - ok, even if you downed a bottle of absinthe and dropped a few acid tabs you wouldnae mistake him for Michael Ballack - but he did what was expected and put in a decent grafting shift...so quite what happened to him in the second half when he couldnae do anything right at all is baffling...almost as baffling as why it took until the 87th minute for Tango to hook him for Griffin when the side had struggled to get out our own half for the first 20 minutes of the second.

However once Riordan had been hooked we came back into the game and once again looked the likelier to score with Snoyl's whipped in balls causing choas, and we saw out the game quite comfortably bar one half chance, but Lovell and Seve at the death missed easier chances.

Other than that, nowt much to mention...the hearty boos when it looked like Lovell was getting subbed for Mackie turning to cheers when he changed his mind and hooked the ineffective Crawford and of course one cannae forget Zander's blood and thunder charge just for its sheer comedic value.

Kinda like watching a toddler trying to walk, I guess you know no matter how far they go it's all gonna end up wi them fallin over, and so it was wi Zander - except his fall also ended with what appeared to be an attempted airborne reach-around on the unfortunate Hibee who got in his way.

There was much laughter in the warm ovation he received from the 'Y' as he ran back to his position...oh, not to forget Grumpian finest videoing the 'Y' regulars and everyone whipping out their phones and filming the coppers filming them...even the copper found that funny.

As for the smoking ban...got to admit it hit me the first time when I got thru turnstiles as I usually light one up straight away as I make my way up to ma perch...and sad as it may sound I actually felt a bit lost and uncoordinated wondering "what do I do now?"

Now I've said in the past, fitba when sober is over-rated...fitba wi'oot tabs is f*ckin torture...I lasted until half time when masel and a couple of other crouched down and hid behind some of the bigger denizens o the 'Y' and had a fly drag using the old 'hidin the tabby wi yer palm technique' I last used when ducking double Physics.

To be fair to them, the coppers were actually alright and provided you werenae smoking in the seats they let it go (folk were openly smoking beside the bogs). I hope this is policy as opposed incompetence and perhaps given it was a Hibs game the coppers just didnae have the time or inclination to nick some o the man mountains puffin awa on the 'Y'.

Anyway, onwards and upwards...a vague chance o the UEFA spot and the best hand we coulda been dealt wi the post split fixtures. Both our main rivals for the potential UEFA spot at home and if we take Strachan at his word there's a fair chance we'll be playing Celtic's U15 Reserves side in the last game.

Odd that a season that's never really caught fire or stimulated us Reds could now turn out to be even better than last year. Jeffries' and Mowbray's sides have both rightly gained praise for what they've achieved this year yet we've been effectively unloved (even by our own fans) and ignored but we're the team wi the momentum and they're showing signs of flaggin......Bring it on.

The Red Avenger