The last time Hibs met Falkirk, the Easter Road men came back from 3-0 down at half time to record a famous victory, but today, despite a vastly improved performance in comparison to last week’s dismal derby display, Alan Stubbs’ men were unable to recover from an early setback and left the field to a chorus of boos from disgruntled fans after going down to a narrow defeat.
Head coach Stubbs made four changes to the team that lost at Tynecastle. Two were enforced with suspended pair Lewis Stevenson and Scott Robertson being replaced by Callum Booth and Scott Allan, whilst on-loan Mark Kennedy took Sam Stanton’s place and Paul Heffernan took over from Danny Handling.
Hibs started brightly particularly down the left side with Booth and Kennedy forming a dangerous partnership and were unlucky not to score.
The Bairns however took the lead against the run of play from a corner when Conor McGrandles won the ball in the box and instead of shooting he cleverly found team mate Loy who produced a clever back-heel which beat Oxley and the Hibs’ defenders on the line.
Stubbs’ men then threw everything but the kitchen sink at Falkirk and both Heffernan and Farid El Alagui should have equalised but failed to hit the target.
Alex Harris almost made it 1-1 after yet another fine run by Kennedy but his shot was blocked then Scott Allan brought out a wonder save from Jamie MacDonald with a long range effort.
Jordon Forster then knocked down Harris’ in-swinging corner kick to El Alagui but his header struck the bar form close range.
Just before the break, Falkirk had two good chances to increase their lead but Oxley did well to keep the deficit to one goal.
Falkirk started the second half strongly with Loy, Olumide Durojaiye and Blair Alston all going close.
Hibs fought back and El Alagui pounced on a defensive error to race through on goal but with the Falkirk players looking for offside, the striker attempted to lob Macdonald and the former Hearts keeper’s fingertips managed to divert the ball away from the goal.
MacDonald showed his experience by wasting time much to the annoyance of the Hibs’ fans in the Famous Five Stand.
Stubbs tried to freshen things up with Jason Cummings replacing Heffernan and Stanton replacing Harris.
Taiwo was also replaced and received a standing ovation from all sides of the stadium.
As so often happens at Easter Road these days, Hibs dominated possession and played some nice possession football but were unable to grab the equaliser.
Both Kennedy and El Alagui were denied by MacDonald in the closing stages as Falkirk held on to secure the three points, leaving Hibs struggling in 8th place in the Championship, six points behind leaders Hearts after three games.
Hibs: Oxley, Gray, Nelson, Forster, Harris (Stanton 79’), El Alagui, Craig, Heffernan (Cummings 63’), S Allan (Handling 88’), Booth, Kennedy. Substitutes not used: Perntreou, Tudur Jones, L Allan, Crane.
Falkirk: McDonald, Durojaiye, McCracken, Vaulks, Taiwo (Cooper 75’), Alston (Leahy 82’), Sibbald, McGrandles, Dick, Maybury, Loy (Boulding 90’). Substitutes not used: Bowman, Grant, Shepherd, Rowan.
Referee: Crawford Allan.
Attendance: 9,153
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
