[ritchiebaby]

Hibs welcome Morton to Easter Road on Saturday in the Championship. Morton are managed by Jim Duffy who guided them to promotion from League One as last season's champions.

Morton have added a couple of intriguing new signings, Romario Sabajo, ex-PSV Eindhoven, and Denny Johnstone, on loan from Birmingham City. They also have perennial goalscorer, Peter MacDonald, who has scored freely for all the clubs he has played for. He might be 34 now, but he knows where the goals are.

Hibs are the acknowledged underperformers of Scottish football, always promising much, but rarely delivering. We Hibbies are used to this, but it's still extremely frustrating. Now comes the news that one of our new signings, James Keatings, the man who could convert our many chances, is out for a few months after picking up an injury in training.   Hopefully we can call on John McGinn and Martin Boyle to come into the starting line-up. Paul Hanlon has rightly been getting stick for some of his displays, but do we really have an alternative?

In my normal positive mood, I'd choose the following team to beat Morton and get our climb up the table under way:-

Reguero,
Gray, Hanlon, Fontaine, Stevenson,
Boyle, McGinn, Bartley, Allan,
Cummings, Martin.

Subs - Stanton, Harris, Malonga.

[hfcbounce]

Correct Ritchie how times has it happened we sign a player and we can't play him. I think Malonga will keep his place after scoring v Sons last week but as you say let's hope for a decent display score a few goals and pick up 3 points

Ggtth

[hibeejim21]

We need to get ourselves together quicksmart,and get somewins under our belt. Last week and v sevco was pretty disheartening.

[0762]

Hibs should win this match fairly comfortably but sadly they have already created a feeling of pessimism/scepticism amongst many within the Hibs support esp when our strikers turn up in certain matches and need about ten scoring opportunities before scoring a goal - IMO not prolific enough as was proved last season. The new season has hardly even started and there is no feel good factor whatsoever, something that Hibs/Stubbs should've strived to create from the 1st game onwards - they had enough time, during the summer, to prepare and plan for that event!! You do the business on the pitch as we're seeing with our rivals across the city AGAIN!! Hibs can at least emulate that kind of performance, they also have a decent budget, and yet there is still a perceived incapability to do exactly that!!! It lingers around our club like a thick fog and that's why lots of Hibs fans will not return to Easter Road Stadium any time soon until this issue has finally been resolved and Hibs provide a football team on the pitch that is the real deal and all the cheap talk uttered by the usual suspects finally stops!! In my immediate family circle nobody goes to Hibs games any more and my sons regard Hibs as a bit of a joke TBH - not a team/club to be proud of - classed as the nearly men with failure stuck to us like mud and as for that regular failed Scottish Cup winning slur, I'd personally throw daggers at the most famous Hibs team of all - the Famous Five, who could not even win a trophy that they were well capable of winning!! I know all about the hard luck stories and all the rest of it but this team existed over a good number of years and sadly didn't do themselves any justice either wrt winning the Scottish Cup and I'm referring to a football period well over 60 years ago anyway!! Is this season the one when we're finally going to change that failed culture???? I doubt it at the the moment and just hope to be proved wrong by a Hibs manager who really needs to impress us this season by providing a good performing Hibs team and hopefully a successful one!!
Additional: Scott Allan looks like he's off to Celtic FC as well - pardon my cynicism but that's another Edinburgh football player who we can add to the long list of incursions down the years!! Also so much for us having a settled start to our campaign for season 2015-16 eh!! Sadly and disappointingly, it aint gonna happen!!

[ritchiebaby]

McGeouch for Allan on Saturday? Time will tell.

[hibeejim21]

A good confidence boosting win please,it would cap off a great week for us.

[Fredstersafool]

Glad to see you boys get yer first pions won

[hibeejim21]

Was a decent 3 points,Cummings played well. Really need to score more goals though as our defence nearly threw it away the day.

We are going to have to better next week to get anything.

[0762]

A hard fought 3 pts in the bag but woeful finishing on the striking front (definitely a concern for the rest of the season!) and what about that referee today??? His name was Charlston and was this guy a Rangers fan, the first to show up @ ER this season? Boyle's pen claim was as stonewall as it gets and this toad of a referee didn't want to know. I don't blame Boyle for being booked for protesting - he was clearly impeded by Russell and the decision was a joke!! This ref's general contribution to the match was dismal TBH and I hope Hibs don't see this ref very often during this season.

[hfcbounce]

I'll second that 0762 the worst performance from a ref I've ever seen in a long time he had a nightmare maybe he's certain ref that also hates HFC love child