Hibernian 1
Dundee Utd 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

It looks as though the pendulem has swung in Hibs favour when we meet the Easter Road side these days. In the past we always enjoyed considerable success against the Hibees, but recent encounters have begun to favour Hibs. Much of the reason for that lies in the fact that this is the fourth consecutive match in which we have failed to find the net against them. For this latest encounter, we did have the boost of Michael O'Neill passing a fitness test, but none of the other casualties — Dave Narey, Duncan Ferguson nor John O'Neil was passed fit enough to play. Jochen Muller came in for Allan Preston and that was the only change in the side which had met Montrose. The German defender was certainly in the thick of the action in the first half. First he made two most timely interventions to prevent Hibs scoring. After ten minutes he blocked a McLeod shot from six yards and similarly thwarted McGinlay in the 23rd minute when a goal again looked almost certain. In between those narrow escapes former Dundee striker, Keith Wright, saw his looping header land on top of the bar, but bounce over. But don't get the impression that it was all Hibs. We had made an impressive start and regained control after the early flurry of activity in front of Guide Van De Kamp who was never really called into serious action at any stage of the match. Skipper Maurice Malpas brought out a fine save from Burridge when he hit a hard low angled drive and Mixu Paatelainen wasn't far away with a couple of headers. Play was halted for over a minute when Evans and Jochen Muller collided in mid-air. When both players had recovered Jochen found himself being shown a yellow card.

The second period opened in the most disappointing of fashions. Almost exactly a minute after the re-start Micky Weir headed Hibs into the lead from a McGraw cross. Within ten minutes Andy McLaren replaced Michael O'Neill and we soon began to dictate play. Hibs keeper, John Burridge, twice foiled us. In the 67th minute he saved Darren Jackson's shot attempt and then palmed away a raging twenty yarder from Billy McKinlay. When needed Hibs defended in depth and with eight minutes left Alex Cleland was replaced by Hamish French as we stepped up our efforts for an equaliser. However, Hibs held onto their slender lead although Freddy Van Der Hoorn's shot in the dying seconds which was only inches away almost salvaged a point for us.