Hibernian 4 Falkirk 3; aet: match report

By Roddy Forsyth, Hampden

5:20PM BST 13 Apr 2013

This was a contest played to Oliver Twist rules - please sir, I want some more. And how these teams ladled out the servings of incident, melodrama, triumph and ultimately, in Falkirk’s case, broken but marvellous dreams.

Some Hibernian fans left before half-time, too fearful of a repetition of their team’s brutal battering at the hands of Hearts in last year’s final to face the possibility of a repeat - or, in fact, an even greater humiliation - inflicted by a first division Falkirk side with seven academy kids in their line-up.

Certainly, after half an hour it was entirely likely that Hibs were heading for one of the most abject capitulations in their history and that Pat Fenlon would catch his habitual Saturday night flight to Dublin as an unemployed manager.

To suggest that Hibs were in disarray would imply that they had been arrayed in the first place. Falkirk, playing a pressing game that unhinged the Hibs defence and outclassed their midfield, struck early with a Craig Sibbald strike from 25 yards after he had been set up by Lyle Taylor and when the Easter Road players failed again to clear their lines at a Sibbald free kick, Jay Fulton doubled the margin with a stooping header.

Taylor was again the provider on the half-hour mark when he rolled the ball back across the goalmouth to gift Blair Alston a simple tap-in to trigger the first exodus from the green congregation. Falkirk’s next thrust put their top scorer in one on one with Ben Williams, but the goalkeeper blocked in what was to prove a momentous intervention.
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Hibs, predictably, regrouped at the interval and their transfusion of purpose was advertised when Alex Harris promptly struck the post. Within five minutes he had found his mark with an angled drive from distance.

Hibs had a flicker of hope, which flared when Stewart Murdoch toppled Danny Handling for a clear penalty kick. Up stepped Leigh Griffiths, master of the dead ball, only to see his indecisive attempt blocked by Michael McGovern, who also foiled the rebound shot.

Griffiths, though, was not disarmed as he demonstrated when he pounced on a Harris cross to flick home Hibs’ second. With Eoin Doyle alongside him - as he should have been earlier - Griffiths freed his striking partner with a chested assist which set the Irishman scampering the length of the Falkirk half to ram home the equaliser.

Extra time was hardly less extraordinary. McGovern blocked from Griffiths within 50 seconds and the Hibs forward was judged offside by the merest fraction when he had the ball in the net just before half-time.

Destiny continued to call him insistently, though, and he responded to its dictate with five minutes of stoppage time left to play when a Darren Dods clearance dropped towards him beyond the edge of the box.

His response was a shot which lanced into the net and through the hearts of Falkirk’s gallant players and their disbelieving support.

Griffiths hails Fenlon

Hibernian hero Leigh Griffiths insisted it was the harsh half-time words of boss Pat Fenlon which kept the Edinburgh side's William Hill Scottish Cup hopes alive after Falkirk raced to a three-goal lead at Hampden.

He said: "We were shocking in the first half but in the second, we managed to pick ourselves up and get the early goal before thankfully winning it in the end.

"When we came in at half-time the manager went through us and gave us a rollicking. He asked us how much did we want it? Did we want to keep our season alive?

"The manager gave us some strong words at half-time. But it wasn't just him who was voicing their opinions. James McPake and Kevin Thomson had their say too.

"That gave us the kick up the backside that we needed and we went out and showed how much we wanted to win the cup."

Taken from telegraph.co.uk