Kilmarnock 1 - 1 Hibernian: Inconsistent Ma-Kalambay gifts Kilmarnock share of the points

Published on Saturday 12 December 2009 20:16

WHAT a difference a week makes.

• Anthony Stokes (left) celebrates his goal for Hibs with Merouane Zemmama. Picture: SNS

This time seven days ago, Hibs were basking in the afterglow of a sublime steamrollering of much-fancied Motherwell; a week later and they're trying to work out how Jim Jefferies' previously work-a-day Kilmarnock outfit did such a comprehensive job on them that the men from Leith can arguably count themselves lucky to come away from Rugby Park with anything to show for their efforts.

As it was, there's so much latent class in the Hibs squad that Derek Riordan almost conjured a moment of magic in the dying seconds when his dipping shot from way outside the area smacked off the crossbar just moments after Colin Nish, who was once again outstanding, almost headed Hibs to a win at the death.

That, though, would have been a travesty for a Kilmarnock side that scrapped for all its worth and deserved at least a point from a contest that Jefferies described as "a great game that was intense, end-to-end stuff played in a great atmosphere between two teams trying to play football". Even a disappointed but understandably sanguine Hibs manager John Hughes conceded that a draw was a fair result.

Both managers had reason to rue the manner in which their sides conceded. Mark Burchill and Anthony Stokes' goals were scored within five minutes of each other, and both owed as much to their opponents' defensive frailties as to their own quick-thinking.

Hughes may have questioned the circumstances of Burchill's opener for Kilmarnock, when Hibs keeper Yves Ma-Kalambay dropped Jamie's Hamill's high curling cross, fell over Chris Hogg and spillied the ball for the Kilmarnock striker to simply head home, yet the fault lay with the visiting keeper who continues to look inconsistent when the ball is crossed into his area.

Jefferies was equally unhappy about the award of the free-kick with which the canny Nish quickly put Stokes in the clear, the Hibs striker's sweet strike hauling the visitors back onto level terms just five minutes after Burchill had opened the scoring.

The Killie manager would be better advised to ask his players why they were busy remonstrating with referee Steve Conroy – who, by the way, had an almost flawless game – when they should have been shutting up shop and cruising to three points.

Yet if the execution of the final pass, particularly in the final third, was a bit hit-and-miss, neither manager could criticise his players for the tempo of a game that didn't fall below frenetic, particularly after the break when the two sides went at it like two packs of rabid terriers.

If the second half was a scintillating spectacle, it came on the back of a frustrating first-half of huff and puff. It was 45 minutes in which Hibs had the more chances, while Kilmarnock made up for the low quantity by the quality of the opportunities they carved out. While Hibs made do with hopeful, but ultimately futile long-range efforts, their hosts fashioned two clear scoring opportunities, both of which involved muscular interventions from Kyle.

The Killie target man was in superbly abrasive form. His collision with Sol Bamba was at times a bone-jarring scrap between two real heavyweights, yet it was the Ayrshire side's talisman who came out on top more often than not. Or, as Kyle put it: "Sol's 6ft 6in or something, he's massive even bigger than me and he jumps like he's got moon boots on – it was a good old- fashioned tussle with him." All three of the home side's chances before the interval either fell to Kyle or were created by him, and it was only two fantastic saves from Ma-Kalambay that kept Kilmarnock at bay, while in the second half only the presence of Riordan on the post kept out a Kyle header that looked net-bound.

The first Ma-Kalambay save came just 20 minutes in when the Belgian keeper scrambled to his left before acrobatically tipping Kyle's header just around the corner of the post. If that save was good, it was followed by an even better one after Kyle had muscled his way onto a speculative punt forwards, winning the header and putting Danny Invincibile clear through on goal, only for Ma-Kalambay to save.

Keepers, though, are remembered for when it goes wrong. It was his fumble which led to Killie's goal and the "two lost points" which his manager referred to afterwards.