Alarming collapse raises serious questions at Hibs

"CAN you imagine scoring six goals away from home and not winning the game? And if it had gone on another 10 minutes, we would have lost 8-6."

Those are the sentiments which might well have been expressed by any Hibs player after Wednesday night's staggering 6-6 draw against Motherwell at Fir Park.

The words, in fact, were uttered some 50 years earlier by the most quotable man in football history. Brian Clough was the exasperated striker whose hat-trick for Middlesbrough in October 1960 counted for little as his team let a 6-4 lead slip to draw 6-6 against Charlton Athletic at The Valley.

If Colin Nish can now say he shares a little piece of historical football trivia with Clough, it will be some time before the Hibs striker can look back upon his hat-trick at Fir Park with any sense of pride.

For Nish and his team-mates, failure to win a fixture in which they led 4-1 after 36 minutes and then 6-2 after 64 minutes was the latest savage blow to their pride and confidence which has been battered in a miserable run of just two victories from their last 17 games.

"We are embarrassed by it," said Nish. "We are a professional football team playing in the top league in Scotland and we were 6-2 up. Yet we haven't come away with the win. We're the only team in the world who could do that. There is no-one else to blame but ourselves."

Some Hibs fans may disagree, pointing out that culpability lies at the door of manager John Hughes as the Easter Road club's once richly promising season threatens to disintegrate completely.

Sunday offers one last chance of salvation when they face Dundee United at Tannadice in the final round of SPL fixtures. If Hibs can better the result Motherwell achieve against Rangers at Ibrox, they will finish fourth in the table and secure a place in next season's Europa League. Fifth place will also be enough for European qualification should Dundee United win the Scottish Cup final against Ross County the following week.

"It's not over yet," added Nish, "and we have to lift ourselves for Sunday. Hopefully Rangers can do us a favour against Motherwell."

But any analysis of Hughes' first season in charge of Hibs cannot now be conducted solely on the basis of their final league position. The dramatic collapse of recent months, encapsulated spectacularly on Wednesday night, raises question marks over the manager's ability to react effectively to arrest a slump in form.

Hughes himself admitted in the immediate aftermath of the capitulation at Fir Park that his emotions were "all over the place". Yet his assertion that his strikers were at fault defied most logical perceptions of what occurred.

While any team requires their forward players to take their share of the workload when not in possession of the ball, Hibs' problems clearly lay in defence on Wednesday. Motherwell appeared capable of scoring every time they ventured forward and from the moment they reduced the deficit to 6-3 with 23 minutes remaining, there was a powerful sense that a result was far from outwith their grasp.

If the introduction of Kevin McBride for Derek Riordan in the 70th minute was intended to shore up the Hibs midfield, it succeeded only in bringing further imbalance to a team shape in which Riordan had been one of their most threatening players.

Hibs were undone by uncertainty in their back four and a performance to forget from goalkeeper Graeme Smith. He appeared almost disorientated on occasions and was badly at fault for both the fourth and fifth Motherwell goals.

Despite Hughes' bid to bring strength and depth to the goalkeeping position at Hibs, recruiting Smith, below, Graham Stack and Mark Brown to join Yves Ma-Kalambay in the first team squad, it remains a significant and puzzling problem.

It undermines the attacking prowess of a team which is as potent as any in the country. Nish's hat-trick took him to double figures for the season, part of a forward triumvirate along with Anthony Stokes and Riordan who have now scored 49 goals between them.

Despite Hughes' criticism of them, they at least played a rich part in only the second 6-6 draw in Scottish football history. The first came when Queen of the South and Falkirk shared 12 goals at Palmerston Park in a top-flight fixture back in 1947.

While much of the focus on Wednesday night surrounded Hibs' frailty, great credit must go to a Motherwell side who overcame their own defensive weaknesses to grab a precious point. They remain on course to play European football for a third successive season which would be a reward for the impressive work undertaken by Craig Brown since he replaced Jim Gannon in December.

For those Motherwell supporters who did not leave the stadium in despair when Hibs made it 6-2, the events of the final half hour or so, culminating in Lukas Jutkiewicz's Marco Van Basten-esque volley in stoppage time, will live long in the memory.

"It was a long ball over the top and by that stage I didn't have the legs to run at the defender," said Jutkiewicz. "So I just decided to hit it as hard as I could. I hit it pretty sweet and knew it had a chance.

"To score such a dramatic late goal probably makes it the most exciting game I have ever been part of."

SPL GOALFESTS

MOTHERWELL 5 ABERDEEN 6 (20 October, 1999)

Fir Park was again the venue for the previous SPL record. Aberdeen travelled to Motherwell having taken just one point from their opening nine league games and on the back of a 7-0 thrashing at Celtic. However, they raced into a 4-1 lead courtesy of goals from Andy Dow, Robbie Winters (two) and Eoin Jess. John Spencer and Don Goodman ensured it was 4-2 at half-time but Winters completed a hat-trick after the restart. Spencer netted his second and Paul Bernard made it 6-3 before Spencer's hat-trick goal and a Shaun Teale penalty set up a frantic finish.

MOTHERWELL 4 DUNDEE UTD 5 (20 August, 2005)

This time it was Motherwell who raced into an early lead, Alan McCormack and Scott McDonald putting them 2-0 up. Lee Miller pulled a goal back before half-time, but it was after the break that the game really came to life. Marc Fitzpatrick made it 3-1, David Fernandez halved the deficit again but Jim Hamilton restored the two-goal advantage. That was as good as good as it got for the home side, who conceded three times in seven minutes to goals from Miller and Grant Brebner (two) to suffer an extraordinary defeat.

DUNFERMLINE 1 CELTIC 8 (19 February, 2006)

Celtic ran riot at East End Park on their way to a first SPL title under Gordon Strachan. Stiliyan Petrov put them ahead in the third minute but Andy Tod equalised for the Pars 11 minutes later. That only served to fire up Celtic, who were 4-1 up before half-time thanks to John Hartson and Maciej Zurawski (two). There was no let-up after the break, as Zurawski completed his hat-trick and Shaun Maloney and Neil Lennon got in on the act before Zurawski completed the rout.

RANGERS 7 FALKIRK 2 (18 August, 2007)

Rangers left it late before completing a crushing victory over Falkirk. Daniel Cousin and Steven Whittaker put them in control but Arnau Riera scored a minute before half-time for Falkirk. Cousin netted a second before Falkirk substitute Graham Barrett pulled another back. But it was Rangers' replacements who had the last laugh as Kris Boyd, Jean-Claude Darcheville (two) and Kirk Broadfoot all came off the bench to score, with three goals coming in the last two minutes.