Match Review: Hotspurs FC vs Hibernians FC

• DF James Keane
• DF Tom Hine
• MD Ali Roseburgh
• MD Lionel Kong
• ST Thomas Greene
• -- Adam McCarthy
• -- Matthew Shoult
• -- Barry McVeigh
• -- Martin Lawrence
• -- Chris Street
• -- Matt Young

• DF Charlie Moss
• -- Fu Cheng Wei
• -- Richard Lenton

Hotspurs back to winning ways... at last

It's been a long time coming, but Hotspurs finally returned to winning ways at the sixth time of asking with victory over a Hibs side that felt more comfortable than the two-goal margin suggests. Hotspurs fielded arguably their strongest XI of the season and were soon on the front foot. Adam McCarthy missed a glorious opportunity from a one on one situation, before Ali Roseburgh's powerful header from a Martin Lawrence corner was cleared off the line. There was more than a suspicion of handball about the clearance. Tom Greene's men finally took the lead on the half hour mark. Lionel Kong, who was moved from the right flank to a centre forward role after Matt Young succumbed to an early hip injury, was the man to break the deadlock - shimmying past his marker and rifling a 20-yard drive into the bottom corner. Hotspurs looked untroubled, but a rare mistake from the otherwise excellent Chris Street allowed Hibs an equaliser against the run of play. After expertly shepherding Dan Martin, an under-hit back-pass allowed the Hibs front man to nip in and slide the ball past Matt Shoult. The Sky Blues continued to press after the break, and retook the lead when James Keane bundled home from close range after Lawrence's free kick was parried. After suffering five successive defeats, Hotspurs' nerves were understandably frayed in the closing stages as they tried to hold on for a first win of the campaign. However, Fu Cheng Wei eased the tension in the dying minutes, cutting in from the right and powering a left footed shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

• Jamie Barnes DF
• Joe Poulton DF
• Nick Edwards DF
• Daniel Martin ST
• An-Rui Chiew --
• Roger Milburn --
• Chris Boylen --
• Thorin Duffin --
• Neil Kee --
• Tom Hawker --
• Colin Gray --

• Andrew Knott --
• Andrew Talbot --

Ok, we’ll bite

Hibs thought they were in a game for most the 90 minutes on Friday night. Nobody told us Hotspurs were cruising at maybe three or four goals up, so we pushed for an equaliser for most of the second half and were a bit disappointed not to get anything out of the game. The first half was pretty even. Hotspurs got their goal from a shot that Tommy would normally have saved. It looked like he didn’t pick it up. No night vision. Our goal also came from a mistake – their centre back under hitting a back pass while trying to hold off Dan. The game really hinged on what happened either side of half time. We missed a golden chance to go ahead just before the whistle. Then just after we came out they scored from a free kick given for the sort of dive that had everyone laughing, except the ref. That rattled us and we never regained the momentum that we felt we had going into the half. The second half was generally low in quality all around with few chances. But it wasn’t until right at the end that Hotspurs got their third. We’re a much better side than we showed on Friday night, and were all a bit disappointed with ourselves. We’ll be looking to put it right on Saturday and get our decent season going again. MoM for Hotspurs was Roseburgh, whose forced shift back into midfield probably won Hotspurs the game. Ours was Thorin, who was all action as ever.