[ritchiebaby]

After another impressive display with Stubbs' 3-5-2 formation, I'm now inclined to go with the flow on this and change my team line-up. All credit to Alan Stubbs for the change - he's obviously tried it out during the last international break and saw that he had the players to do it. The system definitely suits Lewis Stevenson and David Gray is revelling in the attacking freedom that it gives him.

Despite what many may think, Saturday's match against Raith Rovers will be much more difficult than the one against Rangers. It's easy to raise your game against Rangers, but for the bread-and-butter games against the likes of Rovers, Livingston and Falkirk, it's a different matter. It's still the same 3 points for a win, so we need to see once again the confident start coupled with a goal or two and a determination in defence not to concede. 3 wins out of 4 during September should see Hibs play with confidence and freedom.

Rovers will be out to consolidate their joint second place and importantly for us, 3 of their 4 wins have come away from home. Remember their Scottish Cup victory at Easter Road last season? They've scored fewer goals than most and their leading scorer is Ryan Conroy with 3. Battling Martin Scott - a guaranteed yellow card? - and alleged wage thief at Hearts, Christian Nade, are 2 familiar faces to Hibs fans.

I'm still not in the Liam Craig fan club, so my Hibs team would be:-
Oxley
Forster, Fontaine, Hanlon
Gray (if fit), Sinclair, Robertson, Allan, Stevenson
Cummings, Malonga

If swift changes are required I'd expect Kennedy, Harris and Stanton to feature with Booth as a defensive option.

[ritchiebaby]

I'm afraid it's back to the usual Easter Road fare for Hibs. They were playing reasonably well and 1-0 up at half-time thanks to a 2-yard toepoke from Scott Robertson. Having spurned some golden chances, they are then caught out by a Christian Nade goal midway through the second half. Raith Rovers also had chances to take the 3 points, so a draw was perhaps a fair enough result.

Hibs have not only missed a chance to move up one place in the Championship, but possibly worse, have lost ground to Hearts and Rangers, who both won today. David Gray, one of Hibs success stories so far, missed the game with a hamstring problem but will hopefully be ready for next week's game against Dumbarton. His replacement, Callum Booth, had a decent game and set up Robertson's goal. On Monday night against Rangers, Hibs had 10 shots with 5 on target. Today with more possession, they had 12 shots but only 4 on target. And therein lies the problem - not enough shots on target.

[Lord Snooty]

So what happened to Leigh Griffiths coming back on loan?

[ritchiebaby]

There are 2 theories re Hibs failure to bring Griffiths back on loan

a) we want him on the cheap and Celtic won't play ball - and it is their ball after all. They say every player has his price and Hibs are way short.

b) it's all a big con by the Hibs hierarchy - "we did try to get him, but Celtic are being awkward" - pretending to the fans that they did their best, knowing full well there was no chance. Hibs have previous form on this at the time when Wolves were willing to sell Griffiths.