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Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Hibernian 3 Charlton 2

So our first 3 goal defeat of the season but instead of one where we only wake up at the end of the game here we went 2 goals up through Thomas and James Walker (once again) before finally going down late in the game to a Hibs winner in the 75th minute.

Contrary to anything I believed, Monica choose to take not 22 but 24 players to Easter Road with 2 distinct teams being fielded in each half and lots of substitutions as well. As well as the 22 players on display at Millwall there were second half outings for 18 year old forward Michael Carvill and the 17 year old Finnish defender Jani Tanska as well as the 18 year old Icelandic midfielder Rúrik Gíslason that we signed from Anderlecht last August. Monica is certainly giving the youngsters a try out.

Myhre returned to the action for the first half at the expense of Anderson while Randolph was between the sticks for the second half. I wonder if that means anything.

Of the rumoured Salif Diao there was no sign and of course both Bent's were left on the sidelines. And once again Lislie was missing.

As far as the play was concerned it appears that Hibs were fortunate to win with their 3rd goal coming in the 75 minute. We had the best of the first half and scored in the 3rd minute when Rommedahl crossed for Thomas to control the ball on his chest before slotting the ball home. Rommedahl then missed a chance created by Hasselbaink and Ambrose, the keeper being quick off his line to save. Midway through the half the second goal came. Similar to the first, Rommedahl crossed again this time for Walker to score. Rommedahl then missed a one-on-one chance with the keeper after outpacing the defence but pushed the ball too far and the defence cleared.
Before half-time Hibs pulled one back with a 30th yard strike from Scott Brown.

The second half saw Charlton create further good chances with Gislason and Euell missing sitters before Hibs equalised on 62 minutes. There was time for an unmarked Sam to miss a sitter before Hibs finally when ahead.

So it seems our worries about not being able to create chances seem unfounded as we appeared to miss several easy opportunities. Overall its hard to tell what Monica's ideal first team will be but the first half 11 look more the part and now its off to Spain for a juicy encounter with Spains' third best team.

First Half: Myhre, Young, El Karkouri, Hreidarsson, Ashton, Rommedahl, Hughes, Kishishev, Ambrose, Thomas, Hasselbaink . Subs: Fortune, Walker, Walton, Sorondo, Ewell, Holland.

Second Half: Randolph, Walton, Sorondo, Fortune, Youga, Ewell, Holland, Sam, John, Gislason, Walker. Subs: Tanska, Carvill.
A full report can be found here hibernian.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dont't be fooled, Hibs hit the post twice in the first half, and were playing without 5 first team regulars in the squad. Hibs always let in goals under mowbary (take a look at the goals against col from last season) however we do tend to score a lot, especially in the last quarter. We have played 4 competative matched already and have the SPL starting this w/e.