[ritchiebaby]

I'm going up to Easter Road on Saturday to see if I can inspire Hibs' strikers to be more productive in front of goal. Last week Hibs had 20 goal attempts, which sounds excellent, but only 6 were on target, which sounds abysmal. I would have expected the shots on target to be anywhere between 10 and 15, so 6 is simply not good enough. The defence gets criticised for their occasional lapses but we have  conceded 28 goals in 30 games, which is only bettered by runaway winners Hearts. In my opinion the real problem is when we dominate large parts of games, we more often than not don't score enough to reward our play. This gives other teams belief that we can be vulnerable, and you know, they're right.

Queens have hit a sticky patch recently, scoring 8 points out of a possible 21 since the middle of February - we have scored 15 points in our last 7 games. Their fourth place in the table is definitely under threat following Falkirk's victory over Cowdenbeath tonight. Queens' manager James Fowler has agreed a contract extension until the end of next season. Nothing in that I hear you say, but Fowler's first win as caretaker manager was against Hibs, so he's not getting to celebrate his contract extension in the same fashion!

The top six play each other this weekend, so here's hoping Hibs will be moving onwards and upwards, leaving the others to take care of themselves. It's Falkirk v Raith Rovers on Saturday and Rangers v Hearts on Sunday. Everybody being available, my Hibs team would be:-

Oxley
Gray, Hanlon, Fontaine, Stevenson
Stanton, McGeouch, Robertson, Allan
Cummings, El Alagui

Subs - Watson, Fyvie, Dja Djedje

[St Charles Owl]

Game you should win but more importantly a game you need to win!! They will be looking to win to get back into the playoff spots after Falkirk overtook them tonight so its a big game for them as well. Keeping Rangers at bay I think may be tough, they have a little bit of form going and McCall seems to be getting them somewhat organized, so these home games have to be won for you guys!!

[Fredstersafool]

Champions will take care of Rangers on Sunday.

[HerefordBull]

I'm up for this one also Ritchie. Hibs need to show that they can raise their game and give us a convincing win....although any win will do.

GGTTH

ps: I hope you are right Fred....c'mon the jam tarts!

[HerefordBull]

usual post.....poor crowd, poor performance, poor result.....

[ritchiebaby]

I'm just back from Edinburgh and I'll be a wee bit more expansive, Exeter, but it's still the same verdict. Hibs were dire, with only a few exceptions and by their very direness today, the club have lost £185 from their budget. I'll just be doing my usual trick of going up occasionally.

I've certainly lost all faith in Dominique Malonga - he's ponderous, got the touch of an elephant (one with 3 left feet and a wooden leg) and how on earth he wasn't substituted before half-time I'll never know. Scott Allan was rightly booked for diving and if he expended as much energy in his play as he did in his protests to the officials we'd have seen a different game.

Queen of the South certainly deserved the 3 points, but they weren't great. They did have more commitment than Hibs, though, and their goal came from an unopposed charge into our box (by McShane, I think) which led to a bit of havoc and stabbed into the net from close range by Durnan.

I've also lost faith in Alan Stubbs. To my mind it was a strange formation from Hibs, almost a 2-6-2, with the back 2 being augmented by a spare midfielder. At various stages we had Robertson, Watson, Stevenson and Fyvie in the back line. And finally if Alan Stubbs thinks that Malonga's display was worthy of 90 minutes and a Hibs jersey on his back, then he's not worthy of being a Hibs manager. Plus a goal down to one of our challengers and he only uses two substitutes. What was that all about?

Once I've calmed down a bit, I'll probably be back with a more positive view, but right now, it wouldn't surprise me if Hibs didn't make the top four.

[HerefordBull]

Agree with that Ritchie, especially about Malonga. Always struck me as lazy but was fortunate in the early days to be in the right place at the right time for most of his goals.....but how he got 90 minutes today I will never know.

Midfield is all much the same and we miss creativity and drive from them.

As per normal we are starting to bottle it and may not even make the play offs if the results continue to go against us. ( starting to be like last year where people said at this time.....there is no way we would finish in the play off spot, let alone be relegated....and we all know how that finished. ( I suppose at least there is no chance of being relegated this year lol)

Still got to keep the faith and bounce back to beat Dumbarton and the JT's this week......off for a lie down in a darkened room now!

GGTTH