Relief for Hibs as four-goal salvo secures Premier League safety

By STUART BATHGATE
Published on Tuesday 8 May 2012 02:44

HIBERNIAN manager Pat Fenlon declared his team’s dramatic escape from relegation last night had been more a cause of relief than celebration.

Hibs preserved their SPL status in emphatic style with a 4-0 win over Dunfermline, who as a result of the defeat became only the third promoted club since the SPL was started to go straight back down to the First Division.

Five points behind their hosts before last night’s game, and with just two matches remaining, Jim Jefferies’ team needed a win to have any chance of staying up. That chance was gone within quarter of an hour, as they conceded three goals to a rampant Hibs attack.

Matt Doherty got the first and Eoin Doyle the second, both goals arising from some desperately poor defending by Dunfermline. Garry O’Connor got the third from the penalty spot after little more than quarter of an hour, and Paul Hanlon added a fourth ten minutes from time. The fact that Hanlon’s effort did not appear to have crossed the line only added insult to injury for Dunfermline, who had done themselves more damage than any dubious refereeing decision could have inflicted. It was just Hibs’ second home win of the season in the league, and a first for Fenlon, who took over from Colin Calderwood as manager last Autumn. One of the biggest Easter Road crowds of the season were rejoicing long before the end of the game, and looking forward to the Scottish Cup final against Hearts on Saturday week at Hampden.

Fenlon argued, however, that no-one connected with the club should get carried away by a season in which Hibs can finish no higher than tenth – a place which they will only achieve if they beat Inverness Caley Thistle on Saturday by three clear goals. “It’s a bit embarrassing, all the celebration, to be honest,” the manager said. “We’re second last in the league.

“It was more about us showing our appreciation for the supporters than the other way around, to be honest. Since I’ve been here they’ve been fantastic, particularly the travelling support. They’ve been exceptional. It’s a thank-you to them.

“It’s nice to find some form. It was a decent performance and we’ve played okay in the last couple of weeks. So it’s pleasing, a good time to be hitting a bit of form.

“It’s more of a relief than anything else. It’s not a celebration, just a relief for everybody at the club.”

Although Hibs needed only a point to escape the drop, Fenlon had told them to go out and win the game – though he cannot have expected them to follow his orders quite so well in that opening 15 minutes. “It was a fantastic start, although I thought [Dunfermline] started the game quite well too,” he continued. “But the early goals took the pressure off and gave the players some confidence.”

Fenlon now hopes that his team take that confidence into the cup final against their Edinburgh rivals, who have won all three derbies so far this season. “I’ve said it before that my goal coming in was to make sure we stayed in the SPL,” he said. “We’ve done that so anything else is a plus.

“But I realise how much of a plus [a cup win] would be for people associated with this club. So we’ll do the best we can.

“We’ll work for the next two weeks on how we’re going to play, how we’re going to set up against Hearts. I watched them again yesterday and they’re a decent side. We need to turn the tide against them. What better way to start than in the cup final?

“We might rest a few who have been carrying knocks. McPake has been playing with a niggle so we’ll see how he is. We’ll assess it tomorrow and see where we are.”’

McPake, the centre-half and captain who has made such a big difference since joining on loan from Coventry at the start of the year, said: “It is a massive relief for everyone at the club, from the players to the staff and to the people who work in the offices.

“This club has to be in the SPL and thankfully we put it to bed. We started well, we were up for it and we thoroughly deserved the result. Since day one, I have been concentrating on helping Hibs stay in the SPL. The job is done and now we can look forward to a cup final.”

Jefferies, who only became Dunfermline manager some seven games ago, will now have to help the club prepare for life back in the First Division, and for another promotion challenge. “It was a crazy scoreline, self-inflicted,” he said of the match. “It was our last chance tonight to put some pressure on and take it to the last game. Hibs were always favourites, but they were not quite over the line yet and we came here thinking we could take it to the last game. Then we threw it all away in 15 minutes. At the first goal Matt Doherty showed more determination to get to the ball than our players did. The second was another shocking goal which you’ll never get away with at this level. Then being 2-0 down you can’t afford to lose another, and we go and grab a boy [and concede a penalty]. We actually started quite well, and after the three goals were probably the better side in football terms. It could have been 3-2 at half-time.”

On another night Jefferies might have been irate at Hibs’ fourth, but confined himself to pointing out that the assistant referee on whose say-so the goal was given must have add uncommonly keen eyesight to spot what no-one else did.

Taken from the Scotsman