Hibs hit Edinburgh City for six in Neil Lennon's first win

Hibernian secured the first win of the Neil Lennon era last night as Edinburgh City were brushed aside at Meadowbank Stadium.

Darren McGregor scores Hibs' openening goal. Picture: SNS

Following the 1-1 draw at Berwick on Tuesday, Hibs showed intent from the start and were 4-0 up on their close neighbours inside half an hour.

Hibs now host Motherwell in an Easter Road friendly on Sunday before focusing their attentions on next week’s Europa League tie against Brondby.

Forty six days after his momentous header ended 114 years of torture for Hibs fans, skipper David Gray led the team out holding the Scottish Cup for their first match in the capital since the delirium of Hampden on 21 May as the strains of Sunshine On Leith played out around the old Commonwealth Games stadium. Scottish Football League 2
newcomers Edinburgh City had some silverware of their own to show off in the shape of the Lowland League trophy, the winning of which opened the gateway to the play-off against East Stirlingshire which saw them promoted.

Hibs opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Lewis Stevenson’s testing cross was met perfectly by Darren McGregor, who glanced his header in off the post. The lead was doubled three minutes later when Martin Boyle’s shot after a Gray cross deflected in off Cummings and the third came along in short order when Sam Stanton was the first to react when Cummings’ shot came off the post and tapped in from close range.

Dylan McGeough then crashed home a fine left-foot shot from 25 yards out as the part-timers continued to be completely overwhelmed.

City steadied the ship and saw out the second quarter with no further damage sustained but Hibs came out refreshed by a quartet of half-time substitutions and one of them, Fraser Fyvie, came close in the first minute of the second period when he forced a good save from Andrew Stobie.

The inevitable raft of substitutions took the rhythm out of the proceedings but it was one of the City additions who broke the post-interval deadlock.

Ousman See capitalised on some slackness at the back from Hibs to slot past Mark Oxley. James Keatings then got on the end of a fine sweeping move to slot the fifth and Danny Handling’s last-minute trundler completed the rout.

Teams:

EDINBURGH CITY: Stobie, Mbu, Caddow, Martynuik, Harrison, McConnell, McKee, McFarland, Gair, Allum, Cummings. Subs: Donaldson, Guthrie, See, Gibson, Paterson, Dingwall, Carse, Amos.

HIBERNIAN: Virtanen, Gray, Stevenson, McGregor, Hanlon, Bartley, Boyle, McGeough, Cummings, Stanton, Carmichael. Subs all used: Fontaine, Holt, Keatings, Fyvie, Handling, Harris, Crane, Scott, Dunsmore, Porteous, Oxley.