Match Review: Hibernians FC vs FC Nippon

• GK Joseph Storrar
• DF Joe Poulton
• DF Nick Edwards
• MD Julio Vasquez
• MD Andrew Knott
• -- Andrew Talbot
• -- Shazri Sofi
• -- Thorin Duffin
• -- Heljar Havnes
• -- Niko Rieder
• -- Roger Milburn

• -- Danny Vale
• -- An-Rui Chiew

Sitters!

Hibs got off to the worst possible start and conceded early when caught cold on the hottest day in memory, ironically. The home team then went on to stretch Nippon on numerous occasions and missed four clear chances that were difficult to miss. Niko somehow missed the ball completely from two yards, Julio headed wide from 8 and Talbot missed a one-on-one. This has been a big problem for Hibs this season and it's put pressure on the other end. A straight long ball did the trick for Nippon to double the lead and Hibs were two down at the half. They had one other big chance that Joe did very well to block. It was a good response in the second half. Andrew scored calmly after good work by Shaz and Thorin straight from the kick-off. Hibs had some promising moments but paid for the missed chances and errors and missed the extra energy that a couple more subs would have brought to really go for it late on. There was one laughable moment when the Nippon players thought Andrew had just booted the ball out of play for fun under no pressure, but in fact it was for an injured Joey (shock) to get treatment. Joey brushed himself down without after he got the sympathy he deserved (someone shouted, "it was never a foul, Joey, get the f$%* back)") but Nippon decided to spring an attack from the throw on and despite some gentle reminders, Niko had no choice but to crunch the striker as he was about to shoot! Luckily one of the Nippon players realised what was going on and they put the penalty wide deliberately and we all lived happily ever after in a good game in which their lone striker was the MoM. Hibs' MoM was Andrew; another goal and the energy was high in a tough midfield battle those conditions.

• Kenta KATO GK
• Seiji TACHIBANA MD
• Daisuke NANAI --
• Yusuke KANEKO --
• Tetsu KAKIMOTO --
• Kosuke SAKAI --
• Wataru HASEGAWA --
• Abilio YAMANE --
• Koichi SABA --
• Ryota MURAKI --
• Yasutaro FUJITA --

• Genki ITANI --
• Koji NISHINA --
• Jason CHUA --

Consecutive Victory

We considered this game is important for good atmosphere of our team, since we won last week's match. Actually we could get 1st goal (by KAKIMOTO) from FUJITA's good cross ball from left side. After that, we gave several chance to Hibernians. However we could defended by KATO's good saving. At the middle of 1st half, we added 2nd goal (by YAMANE) using long feed from half way line. Then at the first play of 2nd half, we lost one point from our own mistake. Although we tried to get goal changing member, we couldn't get any more even if we made many chance. The game finished as 2-1. Thanks Hibernians in very tough condition.