Hibs pre-season campaign ended with a comfortable 4-1 victory away to English League One side Shrewsbury Town this afternoon.
First half goals from Liam Fontaine and Grant Holt gave Hibs a 2-0 lead, which Jim O’Brien reduced shortly after the break.
Further strikes from Jason Cummings and James Keatings secured the victory and Hibs look ready to face Falkirk next weekend in the Championship.
Almost 500 Hibs’ fans made the journey from the capital and they saw a couple of familiar faces in the home side as both Ryan McGivern and Gary Deegan started the match however there was no place for injury victims Fraser Fyvie, Dylan McGeouch or David Gray.
Hibs took an early lead in the fourth minute when Fontaine headed home from a Keatings’ free kick then Holt added a second two minutes later.
Both teams had chances in an entertaining first half but there were no further goals.
Shrewsbury pulled one back in the 55th minute when O’Brien’s free kick took a massive deflection and ended up in the net.
Cummings restored Hibs’ two goal advantage on the hour mark then turned provider two minutes later when his chipped pass found Keatings who ‘dinked’ the ball past Leutwiler into the net to complete the scoring.
A raft of substitutions followed and both sides created chances in the last ten minutes of the match although neither goalkeeper was tested.
Shrewsbury Town: Leutwiler, Riley, Brown, Deegan, Lancashire, McGivern, Whalley (Jones, 53), Ogogo, Leitch-Smith, Dodds, O’Brien. Unused substitutes: Mangan, Burton, Black, Grogan, Sadler, El-Abd.
Hibernian: Laidlaw, McGregor, Hanlon, Fontaine, Harris, McGinn (Forster, 67), Martin (Stanton, 71), Stevenson(Crane, 71), Keatings (Carmichael, 73), Holt (Boyle, 67), Cummings (Shaw, 80). Unused substitute: Virtanen.
Referee: Bobby Madley.
Attendance: 2007. Away: 469.
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.
