Hibs fightback to no avail

HIBERNIAN: 2 Jones 54; Dalglish 80

ODENSE: 1 Grahn 51

Agg: 2-2. Odense win on away goals

HIBERNIAN probably won't dwell on their Intertoto Cup exit. Tony Mowbray always presented it as a shot to nothing. But yesterday's second leg tie almost turned into something to recall with relish... after it had seemed to turn awfully sour. The 90 minutes ended with the men in green pouring forward in frantic fashion search of a decisive strike and Odense looking sufficiently rattled to suggest it might even arrive.

Such a scenario was inconceivable after Tobias Grahn appeared to pick Hibs off with a 51st-minute away goal. It left the home team requiring to score three times to turn the tie on its head and that task seemed well beyond them even after an equaliser from the bonce of Rob Jones three minutes later. But just as they seemed set to for the UEFA Cup cut they discovered their thrust. And the welly Mowbray's men gave it deserved through the closing stages at least the neat finish from Paul Dalglish ten minutes from time that was not enough to prevent Hibs exiting Europe on the away goals rule.

Mowbray seemed unfussed by the outcome and claimed he could "take or leave" participation in the UEFA Cup. The bread and butter of the domestic game was what counted, he said. The Hibs manager was always keen to present Intertoto involvement as a four-game sequence of glorified pre-season games. But at Easter Road yesterday there was none of that namby-pamby, mind-numbingly dull fare served up under the banner of warm-up games.

The second leg tie unmistakably had the edge of cup-tie football. It was full-blooded, both sides were unyielding, with an engaging spectacle the welcome result. Not often could that be said of any game played in Scotland on the fourth weekend in July.

Hibs spent the week nursing a grievance over the dubious penalty in the Odense opening leg that left them with a 1-0 deficit to overturn. Whether it was frustration or desire to get the job done, the opening minutes were notable for Odense forward Tobias Grahn being the subject of a couple of real bone-crunching challenges. That is sometimes paid by the guy adjudged a team's main threat.

Bruce Rioch's Danish club could be Hibs' doppelgangers. Former Middlesbrough men at their helm, both sides have seen their top scorers spirited away in recent times and their supporters now fear them becoming the sort of passing, but punchless, sides ten-a-penny in the game. In the region of 40-goals a season has been lost with the departures of Garry O'Connor and Derek Riordan inside the past six months. You could add another ten yesterday with Steven Fletcher given leave to represent Scotland under-19s in the European Championships in Poland. The sort of strike he bagged again Portugal last week would have been a godsend against the Danes.

The responsibility for breaking down opponents was entrusted to Chris Killen, flanked by Ivan Sproule on the left and Abdessalam Benjelloun on the right. The mix never particularly convinced, though it did not have much time to do so. After signalling to the bench he had a problem, Killen was forced to make way for Paul Dalglish in the 33rd minute.

Until then, Mowbray's men had required to make do with scraps in attacking areas. Without the suspended Scott Brown, they had no-one to cook up something more substantial and dart beyond the midfield of visitors who seemed content to contain. Stephen Glass tried manfully to make himself available in forward areas, and in the 24th minute, his grafting almost paid off. Patient build-up led to him being fed by Steven Whittaker and unleashing a stinging drive that goalkeeper Arek Onyszko did not look entirely convincing slapping away.

Earlier, Benjelloun had caused Onysko's pulse to quicken when he weaved his way along the edge of the penalty box before taking a pop at goal only to see his effort arc up off the body of Alexander Aas and drift just wide of the upright. It was as purposeful as the Moroccan looked all afternoon.

It seems as if Scottish clubs and Intertoto inroads are not meant to be, with four failed attempts - two from Hibs - to use the competition as a springboard to the UEFA Cup. When Morten Fevang picked out Grahn with a through ball down the right for the striker to race in on goal and tuck the ball out of reach of Simon Brown in the 50th minute, it seemed as if no.4 was well and truly over.

It is to the enormous credit of the Easter Road club that they refused to give up the tie as a lost cause. That had everything to do with Jones giving them a glimmer of hope before the consequences of Grahn's goal could fully sink in. A corner from the right bobbled around the box before it dropped to Stewart on the edge of the area. He then shot into the ground before the ball bounced up inviting for Jones to direct it into the corner.

Little touches can make huge differences and the atmosphere inside Easter Road was transformed from morose to manic when Dalglish had the Hibs faithful believing a classic comeback was on when he showed a deftness to slide in and divert a low angled drive from Steven Whittaker in at the left hand corner of Onyszko's net.

Having appeared composed and in control, Odense were suddenly forced to confront the possibility that they could muck-up a glorious position. But despite plenty of possession and pressure, the absence of a natural matchwinner ultimately may have been telling.

Taken from the Scotsman