Hibs 1 Hearts 5

May 20 2012 by Gordon Waddell, Sunday Mail

ONE hundred and 11 and counting...

Hibs came to rewrite history. Hearts gave them a lesson in how to make it.

Paulo Sergio’s side won by the length of Leith Walk, Princes Street and the M8 combined as they added another year on to the clock ticking in the heads of every Hibees fan.

Their 5-1 romp – the biggest final win since the Jambos lost by the same score to Rangers in 1996 – was one of the biggest Cup humiliations of all time. And it will feel like another century before they stop rubbing it in to their rivals.

The ignominy of Easter Road boss Pat Fenlon being sent to the stand for a petulant gesture at a giddy Hearts end taunting him with a minute to go will only put jam on it for them.

Some people claimed Hibs’ name was on the Cup – the Sod’s law theory – but you could have said exactly the same about the Jambos.

Their road to Hampden has been paved with good fortune – the disallowed goal for Auchinleck, the missed spot-kick by St Mirren, the last-minute penalties that never were against St Johnstone and Celtic.

But yesterday they made their own luck. Rudi Skacel’s double, Darren Barr’s first goal for the club, Ryan McGowan’s fourth so full of desire – the only blot was the dive from Suso Santana which arguably turned the game terminal just after the break.

It earned Pa Kujabi a second yellow card and the Jambos a penalty.

But if Danny Grainger’s spot-kick hadn’t finished it as a contest, it would have come anyway. The burial was always coming.

And it shouldn’t be allowed to detract from the occasion.

This is what cup finals are all about, a stadium split in two by colour, an atmosphere which was thrilling.

There was no point in expecting the game to settle from the off with tensions running as high as they were.

It was equal parts frantic and tentative as they tried to find their range, make that first pass, put a marker on the game.

And Ian Black did it the only way he sometimes knows how, cementing Hibs dangerman Leigh Griffiths as the ball broke free from a corner.

But clearly his morning plea to ref Craig Thomson for leniency had found its way into the whistler’s head.

That’s the only explanation for the lack of a yellow. The only colour that mattered eight minutes later, though, was maroon.

Isaiah Osbourne’s clearing header from Grainger’s corner was poor, falling to McGowan inside the box.

The Aussie’s shot was sclaffed but as the loose ball broke Barr beat Kujabi to it and prodded home.

It was a disaster for Hibs. They needed the first goal, a cause to defend. But as Hearts made it 2-0 inside half an hour, it looked like they could barely defend their mother’s honour.

As Black twisted and turned to feed the ball into Skacel on the edge of the box, Hibs skipper James McPake was caught dreaming.

Standing four yards off his man, it was like he knew nothing about the Czech’s skill set – and the midfielder used the space to smack a deflected left-foot shot past Mark Brown.

At that point, Hibs looked as good as done. All they had offered was a tame shout for a penalty, striker Garry O’Connor flailing at the faintest of nudges from Grainger.

But they should have pulled one back just after the half-hour when Kujabi left Santana sleeping to cross for O’Connor, only to see the striker blaze over from 10 yards.

Santana then cracked in a low drive which was bottom-corner bound until McPake slid in to clear off the line with a desperate trailing leg.
Rudi Skacel goal

If the former Livingston stopper was in make-up mode for Skacel’s goal, that did for starters – but he went the whole hog in 41 minutes.

Tom Soares’ cross went through Andy Webster and O’Connor and McPake snaked out a boot for a class finish inside the six-yard box.

Game on, no question. It was all about how they came back out.

But it was all done inside four nightmarish minutes for Hibs.

They will cry injustice for the third and they will be right.

Sure, Kujabi grabbed a handful of Santana’s shirt as the Spaniard went past him but he was still outside the box when he let him go. So what sent him to the deck is anyone’s guess. Momentum? Spare me.

There was no doubt, as Grainger lanced the perfect penalty into the top corner, that the tide had turned back towards Gorgie for good.

And they rode it all the way home three minutes later.

Grainger’s corner, Skacel’s clip on, Stephen Elliot’s flicked header, Brown’s despairing fingertip – when the ball hung in mid-air after all of that, the man who wanted it most was McGowan. The Aussie’s header in front of his own fans sent the west end of Hampden into orbit.

Empty seats started showing all around the east stand and from the other end the “Ole!” greeting every completed pass was a dagger.

The chants of “Big team, big cup, wee team, wee cup” didn’t help the Hibees either. By the time the fifth goal went in, it was easier to count who was still there than who had left.

Skacel’s shot was no classic – the ignominy of it megging McPake was only surpassed by the fact it trundled in off the post with Brown a spectator.

The bottom line is this Hibs team didn’t deserve to be the ones feted for generations to come.

They have been rank all season and all their frailties were exposed to a huge audience yesterday.

The run to Hampden has only papered over cracks the width of canyons. The historical portents were bad enough for them – the 110 years, the fact they’ve never beaten Hearts on neutral turf, the fact the Cup has been won for a decade now by the team who finished higher in the league.

But back in the present, the truth is there are reasons why they haven’t won a derby in 11, why they finished 19 points off their city rivals in the league. And they have another year to work them out.

Taken from the Daily Record