Hibs 3 St Johnstone 0
Hibs secured top-six status this afternoon with a comfortable 3-0 victory over St Johnstone at Easter Road Stadium.
In doing so, we extended our unbeaten run in the William Hill Premiership to 15 games and won a fifth successive home match for the first time since 2018.
Goals from Junior Hoilett and Martin Boyle had us comfortably ahead at the break with Kieron Bowie adding a third goal from the penalty spot with the final kick of the game.
It was an impressive performance from the boys; such was our dominance that St Johnstone didn’t even register a single shot on target during the 90 minutes.
David Gray made just one change to his side following our 1-1 draw at Kilmarnock two weeks ago - Mykola Kuharevich replacing Bowie in attack.
St Johnstone came into today’s contest bottom of the William Hill Premiership however they have seen an upturn in both results and performances recently. Having lost just twice in their last ten outings, they came into the game in good confidence.
Ahead of kick-off there was a minute’s applause following the passing of former Hibee, John Fraser, with the boys wearing black armbands during today’s contest.
When the action got underway, we made a fast start with Kuharevich blocking a clearance from Andrew Fisher and Hoilett forcing an error from Daniels Balodis inside the opening seconds as we pressed high up the park.
The swirling wind inside Easter Road made for difficult conditions and with Saints defending deeply out of possession we struggled to create any early opportunities as their two holding midfielders dropped back to create a back six.
It took until the 18th minute before we had our first effort on goal as Dylan Levitt pounced on sloppy possession at the back from Saints and the rebound fell kindly for Martin Boyle who saw his shot kept out at the near post by the legs of Fisher.
Seconds later we were ahead. Hoilett gathered possession out wide left before cutting inside and curling an exquisite right foot finish into the far top corner of Fisher’s net to break the deadlock.
We continued to look the more dangerous in the moments that followed Hoilett’s breakthrough however it did take a big block from Rocky to turn a Jason Holt shot behind for a corner kick, as Saints pushed forward.
On 28 minutes it should have been 2-0. Jordan Obita did brilliantly on the left and whipped in a wonderful delivery that found Kuharevich unmarked just in front of goal, only for the striker to volley it over the top from point-blank range.
In fairness to Myko, the ball had been whipped in with some pace and had come through a few bodies before finding him.
It mattered little as we doubled our lead seconds later when Boyle turned his man inside-out before firing through the legs of Barry Douglas and beyond the outstretched arms of the diving Fisher into the far corner of the net.
In the build up to Boyle’s 15th of the campaign, we had again won possession high up the park with Hoilett’s sliding challenge on Sven Sprangler creating the opportunity for the Aussie international.
St Johnstone had consistently looked to play a slick passing game when in possession however it was route one football that gave them their best opportunity of the first half when Fisher’s long clearance appeared to put Victor Mullins clean through, only for the number six to fail to control the ball and that allowed Jordan Smith to gather.
Simo Valakari had seen enough from his men and rang the changes during the interval with a triple substitution.
The changes did little to alter the balance of play as we resumed on the front foot and continued to turnover St Johnstone possession deep inside their halve.
On 55 minutes we nearly extended our advantage from a well-worked corner kick routine. Obita played the ball to Hoilett, who had come short, he spun and cut the ball back to Kuharevich, who was only denied by a good save from Fisher.
Moments later St Johnstone’s Douglas picked up a knock he was unable to recover from and he had to be replaced by Graham Carey.
We shuffled our pack too with Bowie, Dwight Gayle and Alasana Manneh coming on - the latter making his long-awaited home debut.
On 81 minutes we had a good chance to put the game to bed following a terrific counterattack that ended with a powerful strike from Bowie being kept out brilliantly by Fisher, diving to his left.
Then, with three minutes remaining it took another terrific save from Fisher, getting down quickly at his near post, to push away Bowie’s effort after he linked-up brilliantly with Hoilett.
In the second minute of added time Rocky won possession and charged forward before laying off to Bowie who was chopped down inside the box. The referee promptly pointed to the penalty spot and Bowie made no mistake – sending Fisher the wrong way to score.