Match Review: Hibernians FC vs FC Nippon

• DF Nick Edwards
• ST Daniel Martin
• -- Chris Boylen
• -- Faizan Nael
• -- Roger Milburn
• -- Kris Emerton-Jones
• -- Sebastien Homo
• -- Dan Hammond
• -- Alexander Danielson
• -- Colin Gray
• -- Luke Liperis

• -- Sakib Noori
• -- Andrew Talbot
• -- Tom Ruffles
• -- Livesh Gonpot
• -- Mark O'Halloran

Hibs First Points in 16/17 Cosmo season

Well, we did what we set out to do. Albeit not quite in the fashion we wanted Not sure if it was haze or clouds over the PSA, no bitter taste of haze so the game went on and with no surprise Nippon out of the blocks early moving the ball well, Hibs having our fair share had a couple of chances in the first quater, Colin's was the best to beat the offside through on goal but the ball caught up in his feet and Nippon recovered. Nippon then had control upto the water break but could not mount any serious threat on goal, having said that we were scrambling on some well organised short corner kicks.after the water break we managed to hold the ball much better which took some pressure off the back where we managed to control more possession, Hammo, Kris, Roger and Fizzy linking well to get the ball down the channels. Midfield came more into the game, Nick and Seb covered the whole of PSA. Lippy and Boycey being the providers. The first half came to a close 0-0 and a very tight game played so far, we did not want to make the same little mistake as against TGA as we knew we'd be punished by Nippon. So we started out strong and were rewarded after 10 mins, a neat threw ball in the corner which Dan managed to cut back to Lippy. An in swinger eluded the keeper and Colin rose well to pop the ball over the defenders and keeper, a very nice team goal to open Colin's scoring campaign with Hibs. Hibs with a bit of momentum had a decent spell and while Dan made one of his runs the Nippon defender tripped him, a rush of blood for Dan as he pushed the defender. which was a huge shame not only did the ref give a straight red but Seb was also through 1 on 1. I thought the ref and lino's had a decent game but a straight red seemed over the top but I guess its only what the ref see;s (lino was in a good position but did not get involved) Anyway on to the Alamo from Nippon, Sensing and equalizer was in air, they pushed forward and needless to say had most of the possession. However the defense and midfield was immense and got well behind the ball to protect the goal. Hibs had a couple of chances with Sakib a lone target up front could have sealed it but to no avail. The final few minutes was desperate defending, and could not have asked for more from the boys in green. Hammo leading the charge throwing his legs, body, ankles anything to get the ball away from goal, Nick, Seb, Marko and probably a few more making goals saving challenges. Hibs thankful for the final whistle as we notch our first points of the campaign, thanks to Nippon a very strong team who will always be tough to beat. MOM could have gone to many, however it goes to Seb this week for working his socks off MOM for Nippon goes to the froward who was a handful Okamoto I think Swiss next where we hope to add to our tally

• Seiichiro OIYAMA --
• Tetsu KAKIMOTO --
• Takao NAKASUJI --
• Makito NAKATA --
• Yuuki OKAMOTO --
• Takuya TAKAHASHI --
• Yu TAKADA --
• Yusuke ISODA --
• Wataru HASEGAWA --
• Takahiro SHINOHARA --
• Minato HORIUCHI --

• Kei YAMAGUCHI --
• Yasuaki IMADA --
• Ryo SUZUKI --
• Shoma HIRATO --
• Seiji DAIKUHARA --

Hard luck game

Our pre-season preparation went well. We had quite talented new players. Our new season is supposed to start with consecutive victories towards the end of the season. But it was not. I believe we dominated the game but Hibs did not miss a small chance to score. We missed too many. Hibs lost one plyer with a red card at the latter half. It was our one-sided game but we couldn’t find any striker to open Hibs goal.