[0762]

I'm relatively hopeful fred,we were by far the better side last night.

After sitting through this match last night, I must say, on reflection this morning, Raith posed very little threat throughout the game apart from a spate of corners at the end. This result was one of the biggest daylight robberies of the season and our strikers, particularly Cummings, must bear the brunt of the criticism!!! This Raith defence was not as resilient as being described - Hibs were consistently ripping through them and we had enough scoring chances to win three matches, never mind one game!!!! Indeed we should've had a pen in the second half when Stokesy was clearly pushed in the back a yard off their bye line by a Raith defender and Stokesy definitely did not wanna dive or go down!! He wanted to stay on his feet and hit the shot or side pass to another Hibs forward!! It would've been a soft award but it was a pen and the AR , who was close to the incident, got slaughtered by the Hibs support for not awarding it!! Also the ref officials were not the best and ref Clancy? Not one of the best refs in Scottish footie but we know what we get from a poor to average ref like this one!! How Bartley picked up a yellow card, after being hacked on the deck by three Raith defenders, is beyond me. Anyway, I've got the match tickets for the return leg and really hope Hibs do not let down a decent Hibs support that will no doubt show up to back them on Saturday!! We are only one goal down but if our strikers persist in playing like they did last night, then we are eliminated by a very poor Championship team called Raith Rovers and that is IMO unacceptable!
Lastly can any Hibs fan on this board clarify if Stokesy is an inside forward or a pen box striker???????? I can't get my head around Stokes' movement during a match - bizarre!!!!!! He puts in a shift alright but is it the most effective way to get the best out of him as a striker and surely our manager should have an influence on the guy's contribution and how he goes about his business on the pitch? At one stage of this match, we had Stokes playing his usual provider/inside forward role and Cummings spending a lotta time on either wing - what happened to the spearhead striker??????????
 
GGTTH

I'm no in the business of booing any of our players,but their just has been too many frustrating performances from Jason this season.

Raiths manager changed the game with the subs,he sensed our race had run I think and put on a couple of big guys.

Yep hibeejim but that McKinnon move was exactly the same as McIntyre's move in the League Cup final and we know what happened in that match!!! I was literally 'on my toes' as soon as I saw that McKinnon change late in the second half!!!!! Surely our manager, Stubbs, must be as aware of that kinda move and immediately deals with it in his own way - they're trying to steal the match and you deal with these oncoming players with your own tactic - man-marking or whatever but show some sort of vigilance!!!!!! Stubbs did not do that and he doesn't seem to learn from similar match experiences and similar ploys played by opposition managers!! I certainly have my doubts re Stubbs' all round ability as a Hibs manager and I doubt I'm the only Hibs fan to have these concerns either!!
There were a lotta Hibs fans having a 'real go' at Stubbs last night and he didn't walk away from this match with any great reverence from many fans within Hibs away support!!