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St Mary's Saturday 1st October. The Hibs added another scalp to their early season collection as they accounted for The Wall Street Geckoes in a spirited encounter at St Mary’s. The Geckoes were coming off a comprehensive win over the Shogun Knights and looked to have strengthened their squad over the summer, as they arrived with a big squad ready to play.
10 minutes in and Tomo turned his man on the edge of the area and was fouled. Despite Geckoes' appeals that the foul occurred outside the area, Ricky the ref pointed to the spot for a penalty. Poetic justice perhaps for a similar decision awarded in the Geckoes favour in the same fixture last season. Bevan stepped up and scuffed his shot hopelessly, but the keeper had gone the wrong way and it dribbled inside the post.
In the last 10 minutes of the first half, Keita had 2 excellent chances, one created by Tomo and one he created himself with an excellent turn, but the finishing touch was not their on either occasion. 1-0 at half time and the match could still have gone either way.
Early on in the 2nd half a sustained Hibs attack saw a Geckoes defender step in well to clear but he kicked it into his own player and the ball fell to Tomo, in front of goal and he finished with aplomb. Despite the protest for offside fortunately for the Hibs a high quality referee was holding the whistle and he was aware that there is no offside for a ball played in by a defender. A piece of bad luck for the Geckoes, but at 2-0 they were still in the game.
In a game that contained a fair bit of niggle, frustrations boiled over when Geckoe’s Brummie “The Moaner Lisa Midfielder”, jabbed Hib’s defender Ike in the solar plexus off the ball. The normally mild-mannered Nakayama lost his cool and in a moment of madness lashed out with his foot with the ball still well away from the pair. Ricky the ref was left with no option but to brandish the red card and the Hibs were down to 10.
This seemed to spur the Hibs on as once again they finished over the top of their opposition with 3 late goals to Tomo, new signing Yohei and Bevan. In a match that contained enough verbal diarrhea to leave a sour taste in both team’s mouth some members of both sides need to remember to keep their minds on playing football during games.
Bevan Colless
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