This is how it feels (Aberdeen 23 10 21)

Four changes in personnel but no changes in the end result, Hibs failing to trouble an Aberdeen side that was bereft of confidence on the back of a ten game winless run. This was really poor fare and in truth, Hibs got what they deserved for their (lack of) efforts. What irked me most was the absence of fight and passion. Aberdeen showed it in abundance and though they themselves didn’t play all that well, they competed for every ball and their hard work paid off.

Jack Ross made four changes to his starting eleven, bringing in McGinn, McGregor, Stevenson and Gullan and it gave me hope we might see significant improvement over the gutless display against Dundee United. That hope was dashed because although I felt we were a bit better than against United, we were still well short of where we should be. That’s two games in a row of insipid and uninspiring football and the frustrations of the travelling support became evident throughout. It speaks volumes that we couldn’t manage a single shot on target.

With almost 1000 Hibs fans having made the journey the encouragement from the stand was loud from the off but it was soon draining away as we watched Hibs being second best all over the park. We couldn’t string a decent passage of play together, lost out big style in challenging for second balls and played the ball backwards more often than not.

Ironically, it was Hibs that the first chance fell to, but Boyle’s effort was charged down at the expense of a corner that came to nothing. As was the case against Dundee United we struggled to get any kind of foothold in midfield where Ferguson and Brown were ruling the roost. Next, Macey was called into action and had to look sharp when a deflection on a Hedges shot might well have caught him out.

Around twenty five minutes in, Aberdeen took the lead. Hibs were in possession and moving forward but sloppy play in midfield allowed Scott Brown to steal the ball, move forward unchallenged and play a lovely pass out wide to Ramsay. That error in midfield caught our defenders on the wrong foot and allowed Ramsay to cut the ball back to the lively Ramirez who sent the ball past Macey from around twelve yards. The fact that Ramirez was totally free in the box added to the agony of going behind. Ramirez had another chance soon after but sent a header wide of the target.

Aberdeen then lost the impressive Ramsay to injury before Darren McGregor was booked for a body check on an Aberdeen player. Moments later, Lewis Ferguson committed his umpteenth foul of the game but managed to avoid a yellow card from Greg Aitken.

A good ball down the channel from Newell picked out Lewis Stevenson and his telling cross reached Boyle who pulled the trigger only to see Gallagher stick out a foot to deflect the ball just wide of the post. As half time approached, Aberdeen lost a second defender when Daclan Gallagher fell awkwardly in trying to clear a through ball. The Dons had now lost two defenders to injury and were forced to reshuffle with Scott Brown moving back to the centre of defence. Prior to the half time whistle, Watkins fizzed an effort wide and then Longstaff, who’d come on for Gallagher, was booked for a crude challenge on McGinn.

At half time, Jack Ross withdrew Cadden and replaced him with Jamie Murphy but that did little initially in changing the flow of play with the first fifteen minutes being a bit of a non-event. On the hour, Gullan was withdrawn allowing for the introduction of Scott Allan, just prior to Brown being booked for a hefty challenge on Kevin Nisbet.

Hibs were enjoying more possession now but were unable to make that fact work in their favour as it became all too clear that sitting in is the way to beat this Hibs side. The number of pointless sideways and back ways passes is painful to watch as is the lack of creativity. Scott Allan tried his best but all too often the players ahead of him were either static or hiding. With seven minutes of normal time remaining, Drey Wright replaced Jake Doyle-Hayes which allowed Allan to drop deeper as Wright played up top. It had no positive effect on proceedings although a Wright header sailed close to the target but wide.

As we moved in to seven minutes of added time, caused mainly by a lengthy spell of treatment for Joe Lewis, Ross played his final card by sending Darren McGregor forward into attack. Desperate stuff and the most notable event of his stint at centre forward was his second yellow and subsequent red for catching Bates with an arm across the face.

A rightly disgruntled Hibs support made its feelings known at the end and who can blame them?

The players

Macey – Had little or nothing to do, had no chance with the goal and annoyed plenty of us with his poor distribution.

McGinn – It was good to see him back and, on a day, when Hibs were so poor he was, for me, the one who made the fewest mistakes and that earns him my man of the match award.

McGregor – Twice he sold Macey short with pass backs, got himself booked and then at the death made a stupid challenge that earned a second yellow. Not the best of days for Daz.

Hanlon – Paul struggled quite a bit with the constant movement of Ramirez and rarely beat him in an aerial challenge. Looked jittery throughout.

Stevenson – Like his defensive team mates, Lewis was caught on the back foot for their goal, but the cross came from his area and that can’t be ignored.

Cadden – I’m not sure if he was injured, given he was subbed at half time but if he wasn’t there’s a couple of others that deserved to be hooked before him.

Newell – Joe was poor today, very poor in fact.

Doyle-Hayes – Jake is going to come under pressure from our support if he doesn’t stop making his pass of choice a backwards one. He needs to learn to take the ball in and look forward, not back.

Boyle – Lively in patches in the first half but missing in action in the second. Another silly yellow card makes him likely to have to serve a suspension sometime soon.

Nisbet – What the hell has gone wrong with this laddie? Anonymous today and even when he got involved his contribution was negligible.

Gullan – Jamie did plenty of running for an hour but had very little impact on the game.

Murphy – Aside from one excellent low cross he offered very little and was easily beaten by his markers all too often.

Allan – Fought a losing battle in a powder puff midfield.

Wright – Another ‘cameo’ appearance from him but at least he had one effort on goal which is more than most.

Jack Ross – I’ve never really gotten involved in the Ross debate, accepting that things are slowly improving but the last two games are allowing doubts to take up residence in my mind. Today was the first time I’ve heard loud vocal dissent towards him.

Referee – Greg Aitken was standard, in terms of Scottish refereeing ability. The thing that irked me most was that it took him until the 92nd minute to tell Aberdeen players to stop wasting time.