It must have been a cracker of a half time team talk! We turned a poor first half into a well deserved draw. Stuart Elliott again the hero as he grabbed a late equaliser.
Soloy (playing his first competitive match for six months) made his debut in a side which reverted to the three at the back formation of Strong, Deloumeaux and Ready. Eric Black must have wondered if his decision was the right one as the first half unfolded.
Hibs sent wave after wave of attack in on the 'Well goal. They looked particularly threatening from set pieces and they had many.
In six minutes they were awarded a soft corner and the deep cross has Mark Brown attempting a punch at full stretch. He missed but O'Neil didn't. One down.
We got to the break without any further loss but that was hardly a reflection of the play. We had barely any effort on their goal and almost all the game was played in our final third. We seemed to lack conviction and bite and gave away fouls and bookings too easily. But Hibs failed to convert their many half chances, though they struck the bar with one attempt.
They would regret their poor finishing later.
The second half started and immediately a change was evident. We started to hold the ball land passes began to find Claret and Amber jerseys for a change. Our spells of possession rarely ended in a goal threat but we had stopped the Hibs advances.
In fifty five minutes Leitch had one of our first threats as a twenty two yard shot was saved by Colgan. On the hour we almost blew it. Ready went up for a harmless long ball but seemed to mistime his header. The ball went behind the defender and landed in the path of Luna who ran on into the box with only Brown to beat. The goalie kept his calm and Luna tried the lob - but missed the target. The small away support (less than one hundred and fifty) were relieved.
We stuck to the task and began to get chances. The home crowd were getting restless and their players started to send lots of passes astray.
Then the breakthrough. In eighty minutes Elliott produced a great curling shot from outside the box. it struck the bar. But a minute later he struck again.
Hammell beat three on the left and got to the line. He delivered a solid, pacy cutback which Stuarty took great delight at slotting home. The equaliser was no less than we deserved.
Adams came on for Kelly in the last few minutes as we defended the Hibs final attacks. Some wonderful defensive tackles by Deloumeaux in particular kept the Hibbees at bay.
Eric Black said afterwards, "The second half performance was very pleasing". He also commented, "Lesser teams would have buckled at losing the early goal particularly after the performance last week".