David Gray and wretched Hibs left wondering what might have been in masterclass on what not to do with 10 men
Club legend’s future in grave doubt as professional Dundee chalk up 4-1 win
One-nil up inside two minutes, a man down after 12 and then trailing by the half-hour mark. David Gray wanted to fade into the Dundee haar that had briefly put the match in danger.
A mistake from his goalkeeper that ought to be quickly added to those comedy goal DVD collections that are so popular at Christmas was the last straw. It wasn’t even half-time yet. In the annals of catastrophic halves of football in Hibs’ 149-year history, this was right up there. And a club hero might pay the cost.
The mist had cleared by the start of the second half. Nevertheless, it remained a difficult game to assess. Did an early red card for the visitors mean any attempt to evaluate the performance was a pointless exercise? Any team, particularly one already operating so low on confidence, would have struggled in these circumstances. Jordan Obita has a lot to answer for. A reckless high challenge on Mo Sylla completely altered the dynamics of this match. It might have been a defining moment in a young man’s managerial career.
Only Hibs could get themselves into a position where they are wrestling over the dilemma of whether to sack a club legend as they weeks tick down to their 150th anniversary year.
Maybe it’s not even a dilemma any longer. Last week’s vote of confidence from the board was an already ominous sign that Gray was living on borrowed time. He also admitted that what he had delivered so far "was not good enough" in his pre-match press conference. He very deliberately stopped to applaud the away fans at the end of this bruising defeat, which leaves Hibs rooted to the bottom.
It’s not hard to feel sympathy. What can you do when your experienced left back is shown a straight red card 11 minutes into a game many have branded as must-win, or at least must-not-lose? Not a lot.
That said, it might be better for one’s hopes of continuing in the role of manager had the loss of one player not so quickly led to all-out collapse. It was a masterclass in how not to play with ten men thereafter. Hibs, remember, were a goal ahead at the time having enjoyed a dream start.
Nicky Cadden continued a hot streak that included a goal in the final minutes of Hibs’ previous game to put his side ahead in the opening 75 seconds of this one. He also had a goal ruled out late on against St Mirren. His goal here was a nicely controlled strike into the corner after a cross from Obita that suggested the 30-year-old left back was in the mood to give the Dundee backline some problems.
Indeed, so dominant were Hibs in this opening period, and so poor were Dundee, that it really is incumbent on anyone trying to produce a fair review of the game to ask, what might have been? What might have been had Obita not miscontrolled near the touchline on the south enclosure side of the ground as Hibs were mounting another attack. What might have been had he not been fractionally late and high with a challenge on Sylla, meaning his studs clattered into the midfielder’s ankle. Sylla had just been yellow carded himself for a high-feet challenge on Josh Campbell, whose return to the Hibs starting XI had been the pre-match talking point.
It was lost in the post-match discussion dominated by the subject of Gray’s future. What mustn’t be overlooked is Dundee’s professionalism in taking advantage of the one-man advantage. It isn’t always easy to play against a team forced to fight for everything, not that Hibs did that.
It was meek surrender but Dundee were clinical, levelling through Jordan McGhee after 26 minutes following good work from Fin Robertson on the left and then going ahead just five minutes later. Robertson’s corner flicked off Antonio Portales before being converted into the Hibs goal off Nectarios Trantis’s head.
It was all over by half-time injury time, when Seb Palmer-Houlden hunted down Josef Bursik after a passback and took full advantage of a poor touch from the goalkeeper before rifling ecstatically into the empty net. It was actually difficult for Dundee to know how to approach the second half. With the points seemingly safe, did they go all out for more goals or simply keep things tight? They apparently chose the latter option although there were chances from crosses flashed across the face of the Hibs goal.
A late strike from substitute Curtis Main, after man of the match Lyall Cameron had dispossessed the dithering Rocky Bushiri, was a deserved fourth for the hosts. "It meant we won the second-half 1-0," noted manager Tony Docherty afterwards, something he said gave him as much satisfaction as the quickfire reaction to the red card in the opening 45 minutes.
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