Dundee United 1-0 Hibs: Lacklustre Hibs let United play leapfrog

JUST as Hibs' 12-match unbeaten run raised expectations so, too, have the past few weeks been reflected in exaggerated predictions of the Easter Road outfit's demise.

One point from three games has seen John Hughes' side slip from the third place they have occupied for so long, Dundee United leapfrogging them thanks to Leith boy Danny Swanson's strike at Tannadice.

Hibs, of course, can rectify that situation if they take full advantage of their game in hand. But, for the time being, fans will be concentrating their minds on the recent run which has also allowed those sides below them in the table, most notably Capital rivals Hearts, to be thinking the title of "best of the rest" behind the Old Firm is again more than the two-horse race it had appeared to be. Throughout that long unbeaten run Hughes cautioned against getting carried away, time and again warning that in football the landscape can change dramatically within a short space of time.

Having arrived as successor to Mixu Paatelainen at the beginning of the summer, Hughes has constantly described his task as "work in progress" rather than one which was complete after only a few months.

As match after match passed without defeat, Hughes, while delighted, was equally aware of his squad's shortcomings, expressing frustration at their seeming inability to "turn it on" for the entire 90 minutes of a game rather than treating both him and the fans to mere glimpses of their true capabilities.

Halfway through the season manager and supporters alike still aren't sure of what they'll get on any given day, a lightning quick start or a team in a collective state of stupor seemingly awaiting a wake-up call before getting themselves properly involved in the action.

More than once this season Hibs have been guilty of ceding the initiative to their opponents before finding it within themselves to retrieve the situation. However, if you continue to play with fire then one day you will get your fingers burned. And this was one such day as Hibs again displayed their Jekyll and Hyde personna, second best throughout the opening 45 minutes which they were lucky to survive losing just one goal before mounting a spirited comeback which, this time round, fell tantalisingly short of salvaging a point.

United themselves have, of course, endured something of a mini-crisis following the departure of Craig Levein but under interim boss Peter Houston they have rallied, this victory their third in eight days with new goalkeeper Dusan Pernis, following in a line of impressive No.1s at Tannadice, enjoying a clean sheet in each.

The heroics of Hibs goalie Graeme Smith deserved similar reward, Hughes' latest signing realising he was in for a busy afternoon of it as he was forced to leap acrobatically to push away a deflected Paul Dixon free-kick with barely three minutes on the clock.

A point-blank save from an Andy Webster header followed before the best of the lot, a stunning spot-kick stop from David Goodwillie after referee Steve Conroy and his assistant Martin Cryans contrived, wrongly, to judge Chris Hogg's challenge on Prince Buaben had taken place inside the penalty area.

Smith was beaten, though, and again it was thanks to Cryans who failed to raise his flag against Goodwillie as he gathered possession a good half-yard offside before supplying the pass for what proved to be the only goal of the game.

Hughes said: "It wasn't a penalty, it was a good yard outside. That was disappointing, the referee got it wrong. The offside wasn't him, it was the linesman who needs to get his flag up."

Aware, though, that he was leaving himself open to an accusation of sour grapes regardless of how valid his observations were, Hughes added: "It's neither here nor there, some go for you, some against. That's the way it goes in football."

Smith added: "These things happen in games. You just hope you get the decisions going your way and you are not punished for the ones that go against you. That's the job of the referee but as a team we have to take responsibility for our performance."

While Conroy and Cryans provided plenty of talking points, there was no questioning United were well worth their lead as Hibs defender Ian Murray admitted. He said: "We just did not get going in the first half. It wasn't a penalty but had they been two ahead at half-time it wouldn't have been against the run of play. They deserved to be two or three up, thankfully it was just one."

And Murray offered his own opinion of why Hibs found it difficult to gain a foothold in the match, saying: "I think when we come up against physical sides we struggle a little bit. Hamilton away, the Old Firm are big, strong teams and we've come here and lost to a big, strong team but in the second half when we realised we were in a fight we matched up well.

"United have always been a big side but they are a good side, good players in the middle of the park, decent strikers and they seem to have a good balance which is something that at the moment we do not seem to have."

While the Tayside club may be managerless, Houston, who again insisted he doesn't want the job, does, at least, have the benefit of working with a squad which he and Levein have assembled over the past three years; tough, no-nonsense central defenders, a physical presence in the middle of the park with Buaben and Morgaris Gomis, tricky wingers in Swanson and Craig Conway while the movement of Goodwillie caused Hibs problems throughout with his willingness to pull defenders out of position.

Hibs on the other hand found lone strike Anthony Stokes isolated too often with Derek Riordan hugging the left touchline and Merouane Zemmama the right, a situation Hughes rectified as he reshaped his team after the interval by playing three central defenders with the introduction of Steven Thicot, allowing David Wotherspoon and Murray to press forward on the flanks while getting the strikers closer together.

Hughes said: "It was something we have never done before or even practised, playing with five at the back but I felt we had to do something right off the page. I think it put us on the front foot but we just did not have enough brightness up front to unlock the door."

Hibs almost did so, however, with substitute Colin Nish nodding inches wide, Liam Miller forcing a decent save out of Pernis as had John Rankin with a viciously dipping free-kick just before the interval, and Wotherspoon cushioning a volley from Murray's diagonal pass which clipped the post and then the goalkeeper before going wide.

While this was only Hibs' fourth league defeat of the season it was their second in three games but, according to Smith, there's no reason for the alarm bells to be ringing.

He said: "We win and lose as a team, we defend and score as a team. We could have created more chances for the strikers and we were disappointed to lose a goal. But the one thing you don't do is dwell on it. You put it to bed and hope that in the next match you can put it right for the supporters."