Terry Butcher changed to a 3-5-2 formation with Sengewald and Ferguson coming into the starting line up. This move seemed questionable and we almost paid the price in the first minute when Luna headed over when it looked easier to score.
The rest of the first half was fairly dull with the teams cancelling each other out. Francois DuBourdeau was in commanding form and he was confidently claiming every cross ball that came into the box. At the other end, Adams had a long range header easily saved and Colgan had to look sharp to cut out Hammell’s cross.
At the interval the home side left the field to a chorus of boos but the 300 visiting fans were delighted with what they had witnessed.
Things managed to get even better just a few moments into the second half when we took the lead. The Hibs defence failed to deal with a long ball and when Stevie Ferguson squeezed between the defender and ‘keeper he had the simple task of heading into the net. The ‘Well fans behind the goal exploded with delight and most missed Daniel Sengewald being booked for persistent fouling – a decision with big implications for the game.
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Stevie Hammell came close to doubling our lead but he tried to beat his marker one too many times and his shot was deflected wide for a corner. Sadly we were left to rue that miss as the turning point of the game came shortly afterwards. Daniel Sengewald needlessly crunched someone from behind in the middle of the park and he was shown his second yellow card. From that time it was a matter of holding on and we never looked like keeping Hibs from DuBordeau’s goal.
Mixu Paatalinen, who had been invisible for the first half, leapt high in the air to head into the far corner for an equaliser after 58 minutes. At this point Dirk Lehmann was moved back into the defence, a move that possibly should have been made as soon as we were down to ten men.
However, three minutes later the debate was irrelevant as Hibs scored to win the game. Paatalinen’s header across goal was met by Tom McManus whose header narrowly squeezed under DuBourdeau.
We did manage to come back into things with a couple of good crosses coming close to giving us the crucial goal to level the match. Despite this, McFadden was introduced and was lucky not to be sent off for a blatant stamp on Derek Townsley. He was booked though and we weren’t so lucky when Pearson clobbered Grant Brebner. Pearo was given his marching orders for a second bookable offence and the resulting melee saw Partridge and Brebner join Fergie in the bath.
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