Dundee Utd 1
Hibernian 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Tannadice was cold and very windy for the visit of Hibs and it was the Easter Road men who had the advantage of the elements in the first half. The eleven who had finished the match at East End the previous week were entrusted with the task of trying to register our first win of the season over Hibs which would allow us to leap-frog them into fourth position. With only four minutes gone Hamilton elected to have a go for goal but his wind assisted shot was well held by Alan Main. That was, however, one of few Hibs attacks in the first half as they failed to capitalise on the strong wind at their back. We had the bulk of the play even against the elements and this bore fruit in the 16th minute when Grant Johnson, making his home debut, released Victor Ferreyra. The Argentinian made a bee-line for the touchline before cutting the ball back. Dave Bowman failed to connect, but Alex Cleland, coming on behind him, didn't and drilled the ball low past Burridge from ten yards. As Hibs struggled to make any kind of impression in attack and were very lucky not to go further behind in the 24th minute. Youngster Grant Johnson was once more the man who opened up the Hibs rearguard as his long ball found Victor Ferreyra who was unceremoniously brought down by Hibs goalkeeper Burridge well outside of his area. He was promptly sent off and Mitchell took over in goal. Despite their double disadvantage Hibs actually enjoyed their best spell of the game immediately after Burridge's dismissal.

Victor Ferreyra was causing the Hibs defence all kinds of problems, but Mitchell was largely untroubled as the Easter Road defence gathered en masse in front of the deputy goalie. Mitchell's first save of note was in his more orthodox full back style as he booted the ball clear from Victor Ferreyra. Almost immediately on the re-start, Mixu Paatelainen beat Mitchell, but his shot from a Duncan Ferguson cut back struck the bar! Victor Ferreyra continued to be heavily involved and Mitchell blocked a shot from the Argentinian with his foot and then palmed away a chip from influential Victor. Surprisingly, Hibs were looking more dangerous in the second period, despite their numerical disadvantage, but unlike recent games we didn't relinquish our, albeit, slender lead. Seven minutes from the end somehow Hibs survived a frantic goalmouth scramble but we had to be satisfied with a one goal victory and so we weren't able to add to that Alex Cleland goal, which gave us our third consecutive victory and pushed us into fourth spot in the table.