Hibs v Raith Rovers - 29/08/15

ritchiebaby · 27-08-2015, 23:18

This Saturday sees Raith Rovers as the visitors to Easter Road with a 3pm kick-off in the Championship. Hibs need to up the pace significantly if they're to be accepted as contenders for the title. Being three points behind Rovers has to be rectified now and anything other than a win for Hibs would be unacceptable as far as I'm concerned.

I'd consider the Kirkcaldy side to be one of the teams contesting a play-off place at the end of the season. They finished mid table with a poor goals deficit, but the acquisition of Craigen, Wighton and Daly should result in more goals scored and possibly less conceded. Unfortunately for them, James Thomson has lost his red card appeal and will miss Saturday's game. Also Rovers will be without Ross Callachan (dislocated shoulder) and Lewis Vaughan (ACL rupture). Having said that, they beat Hamilton in the League Cup on Tuesday night, so we should be taking nothing for granted.

On the Hibs front, I've decided to give up on Reguero getting into the team (a bit of reverse psychology working here) and I'm sure Stubbs will also persevere with the rest of his selections last night. The only criticism of the Hibs squad at the moment is that picking a team is becoming more and more difficult. We've far too big a choice in midfield, with not nearly enough in defence. However, my team for Saturday would be:-

Oxley, Whistle

McGregor, Hanlon, Fontaine, Stevenson,
Fyvie (if fit, if not, Henderson), McGinn, McGeouch, Carmichael,
Keatings, Boyle.

Subs - Henderson (or Stanton), Cummings, Martin.

hibeejim21 · 27-08-2015, 23:43

This is a huge game for us.

I wonder if a 3-5-2 might help us more in this one. As much as i bemoan our lack of options in attack why not play both malonga and cummings cos trust me keatings is nowhere near ready.

ritchiebaby · 28-08-2015, 00:26

Fair point, jim, but if Stubbs is only giving Keatings 5 or 10 minutes at the end of a game, he'll never be ready. To me, he needs a start, but you've seen him, I've not. For all that Cummings and Malonga were 2 of the top 5 Championship scorers last season, they don't always seem to gel. We're not scoring as we should, so we need to change something.

hibeejim21 · 28-08-2015, 00:55

aberdeen in the next round.... a good test for us and maybe a good gate as well. Looking forward to it,seen many a good tussle between the teams over years.

ritchiebaby · (This post was last modified: 29-08-2015, 17:13 by ritchiebaby.)

James Keatings gets a start for Hibs and what a good one it is! He opens the scoring after 22 minutes following an opening quarter dominated by Hibs. Now to build on this. Thumb up

HT Hibs1 Raith Rovers 0. It sounds as though Hibs will be glad to have reached the break still ahead. Raith have had the better of the last 10 minutes of the half, winning 3 corners in that spell. Unless Hibs can step up a gear, it could be a nervy second half.

Jason Cummings gets Hibs' second goal after 50 minutes to give a little bit leeway. We've now got to be secure at the back and hopefully extend our lead in the process.

ritchiebaby · 29-08-2015, 17:55

FT Hibs 2 Raith Rovers 0. Hibs were hanging on a bit at the end, but an excellent 3 points won with another clean sheet.

hibeejim21 · 29-08-2015, 19:05

Good 3 points and i thought we were mostly comfortable enough, middle of the park looked better with fyvie out and having a finisher up front taking the chances makes all the difference. Cummings played better as a result. Predictably keatings was blowing out his arse before half time and i thought stubbsy should have left him inside at the interval, hopefully their won't be any fallout from that.

Mcginn really is an excellent signing by the way,full of graft and good skill.

In other news i can't believe the champions elect lost the day in hamilton,maybe not getting their weekly penalty might have had something to dae wi that though. Great saturday for the hibs fans, hopefully sevco will stuff up in dumfries the morn and make it a carlsberg job.

hibeejim21 · 30-08-2015, 21:00

Following on from that I would think Neilson will be hauled before the beaks for his comments on Saturday. Hes basically accused collum of cheating them which is ironic considering the breaks they have had in recent times from the men in black.

Fredstersafool · (This post was last modified: 30-08-2015, 21:15 by Fredstersafool.)

To be fair Collum is a xxxx but he should really choose his words a bit more carefully however Collum should not be allowed to ref games he's fecked up to many times ands seems untouchable,

Oh jim Celtic won yesterday just for the record,stop being a cock

TIN TIN · 30-08-2015, 22:52

Cmon Jimbo, get real. A great day for Hibs fans, not because yer team hung on for victory against Raith but because HMFC lost at Hamilton- very sad. The thing is, big teams occasionally come a cropper and suffer an unexpected defeat and lo and behold, it happened at Hamilton and shocked the whole of Scottish football . xxxx all to do with Collum, Hearts deserved to lose on the performance but big teams know how to recover from such a defeat.