Hibs 2 St Mirren 0

There was no love lost on Valentine’s Day at Easter Road as we saw off St Mirren 2-0 following a bruising 90 minutes.

Owen Elding marked his first Hibs start by notching his first goal for the Club and Ante Suto added our second only four minutes after stepping off the substitutes’ bench.

We had chances to make our lead more commanding against a St Mirren side that rarely threatened a rock-solid home defence, and we ran out comfortable victors in the end.

David Gray made three changes – one enforced - to the side that lost out in midweek away to Hearts.

Out went Munashe Garanagna due to an injury sustained in the derby, whilst Martin Boyle and Kai Andrews dropped to the bench.

Warren O’Hora returned to our defence, Jamie McGrath to midfield and Elding came in for his first start, where he partnered Dane Scarlett in attack.

The visitors made three changes from their midweek loss to Kilmarnock with Dan Nlundulu, Conor McMenamin and Jake Young coming back into their side.

The match started slowly and took its time to get going; indeed, it took until the 13th minute before the first action of note when Jack Iredale’s cross from the left saw Scarlett adjust his body in midair to get his head to it, however, Shamal George was well positioned to gather.

We dominated the first half, creating several good opportunities that could have resulted in a commanding lead however we were just not clinical enough in the final third.

On 15 minutes a quickly taken free kick almost put Elding in on goal, however, he was caught on his heels and the ball squirmed away. 

Moments later, a powerful low drive from Miguel Chaiwa was saved by George and from the rebound, Elding headed wide under pressure.

Scarlett then fizzed a shot just wide from distance before Rocky Bushiri should’ve scored as the ball dropped to him six yards out, however he failed to connect and the chance was gone.

Nlundulu had St Mirren’s first – and only – opportunity of the opening 45 minutes with a snapshot from 20 yards out that he dragged wide of Raphael Sallinger’s near post.

We were soon back on the offensive with Jamie McGrath testing George with a shot from range before a terrific break down the left from Iredale, evading two St Mirren defenders ended with goalkeeper George saving bravely at the feet of Elding.

Former Hibs man Alex Gogic was tasked with man-marking Chaiwa and followed him menacingly around the park.  Although Gogic did his best to let Miguel know he was there, the Zambian midfielder appeared to relish the contest, and on several occasions showed clever footwork to leave Cypriot in his wake.

Three minutes before the half-time interval came the breakthrough.  Nicky Cadden’s corner kick was initially cleared before Dan Barlaser floated a wonderful delivery into the packed penalty box, and Elding glanced a terrific header past the stranded George.

Stephen Robinson clearly wasn’t happy with his side’s first-half performance and replaced Young and Jacob Devaney with Roland Idowu and Mikael Mandron ahead of the restart.

Nevertheless, we came flying out of the traps at the start of the second half and were desperately unlucky not to go further ahead when Nicky Cadden’s hanging cross to the back post was met by Felix Passlack on the volley and the ball crashed back off the upright.

Slowly St Mirren’s changes started to give them a foothold in midfield and on 55 minutes, Gogic pressed Chaiwa into a rare mistake and from the loose ball Mandron let fly with a rising shot that seemed destined for the top corner, only for Sallinger to produce a stunning save to deny him.

The visitors made further changes with Jalmaro Calvin and Mark O’Hara coming on around the hour mark, and for the first time this afternoon they began to exert real pressure on our backline due to their physicality.

Goalscorer Elding left the field to a standing ovation on 63 minutes to be replaced by Boyle and Scarlett was withdrawn for Suto. 

The Croatian striker Suto wasted little time in making an impression on the contest as he turned home a Nicky Cadden cutback after the full-back had skipped away from Conor McMenamin on the left.

St Mirren won a series of late corner kicks to try and force their way back into the game, and in the final four added minutes, a Gogic header beat Sallinger only for Iredale to hook it away.

In the end, we comfortably saw out the game to claim three massive points and get back to winning ways.