Garry glad to be the lone gun

HAVING witnessed the level of opprobrium directed at Sven Goran Eriksson after England's shock defeat by Northern Ireland Tony Mowbray would have been forgiven for quietly dropping the similar formation he had adopted at Easter Road.

Although the 4-5-1 system had worked to devastating effect at Ibrox as Hibs recorded their first win in Govan for a decade, eyebrows were raised when Mowbray continued to deploy his side in the same fashion.

Too negative, particularly when playing at home, was the accusation by some who probably wondered that if the likes of David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard struggled to comprehend what was required of them what hope would Mowbray's youngsters have.

But his kids have proved to be quick learners, and, far from being a defensive formation designed to frustrate the opposition, Mowbray's players have used it to great effect with on-lookers realising that, in fact, it is a formation which is highly flexible even if, notionally, Hibs have a lone striker in Garry O'Connor.

The Scotland star would be the first you'd expect to have his reservations with the responsibilities his position brings but today the 22-year-old insisted he much preferred it to the more traditional 4-4-2. He said: "It's a new system but I prefer it. The boys are adapting to it and I think it's beginning to work very well.

"It's not really a 4-5-1 but a 4-2-3-1 with Michael Stewart pushing on while Derek Riordan and Ivan Sproule can come in from the flanks to support the lone striker.

"And the three of us are inter-changeable, I can go out left or right and they can come in through the centre."

The beauty of Hibs' new formation wasn't lost on Motherwell boss Terry Butcher who conceded that had it not been for the brilliance of his goalkeeper Graeme Smith, the Edinburgh side would have enjoyed an even healthier victory at a ground not renowned for gifting visiting sides easy points.

Butcher said: "It's a hard system to play against, the wide players stop your full-backs getting forward and Hibs have terrific pace.

"Hibs also have good options, I looked across at their bench and saw three strikers, Steven Fletcher, Amadou Konte and Sam Morrow. They are tough at the back and in midfield when Kevin Thomson picked up an injury Stephen Glass simply stepped in. I was disappointed in that we can play better, but full credit to Hibs, they could an should have scored more and had it not been for Graeme they'd have done so.

"I wanted to change it around and bring in some fresh legs but I've got a small squad and on top of that Paul Quinn was injured although we did have Phil O'Donnell back."

O'Connor echoed Butcher's opinion, saying: "You struggle to get points at Fir Park but we won convincingly, we played some good stuff and deserved to win - in fact we could have won by a lot more."

It was not only a compelling victory for Hibs but a performance to match which left Mowbray highly satisfied ahead of Thursday's UEFA Cup second leg clash with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the Ukraine, a match in which his side must score if they are to progress to the lucrative group stage.

And on the evidence of three away goals, courtesy of Guillaume Beuzelin, Michael Stewart - his first in a green and white jersey - and Derek Riordan, Hibs will travel with a degree of confidence that they can do so following the goal-less draw in the first leg in Edinburgh.

The fact that eight of Hibs' 14 goals so far this season have come on the road will also add to the notion that they can claim a memorable result with Mowbray believing it can be done.

He said: "No disrespect to Motherwell, but Dnipro will give us a few different problems and our team will have to be set up slightly differently.

"We know we have to try to give them some problems and we know we have to try to score a goal which I think we are more than capable of doing. But we will also have to be defensively well organised and we'll work on that this week.

"It's a game we are looking forward to and we feel as if we can go there and get the right result."

The Ukrainians are, of course, well aware of the pace of Ivan Sproule and it was the speed of the Northern Ireland star which caused Motherwell all sorts of problems, but with midfielders Beuzelin and Stewart striking on this occasion, Hibs showed they are capable of hurting teams from many different areas of the park.

Beuzelin headed home the first from Riordan's corner and just as the worry that Hibs might pay for passing up a string of decent scoring opportunities, Stewart was on hand to bundle the ball home after the impressive Smith was unable to hold onto a Riordan shot.

Riordan wrapped up the points with another classic strike, taking Sproule's pass in his stride before drilling a low shot in off the far post. Richie Foran's late penalty, awarded after Glass was adjudged to have tripped Phil O'Donnell, took a little of the gloss off the win but did little to detract from Mowbray's satisfaction at taking all three points from a game which he admitted he felt could be troublesome to his side, coming as it did in the middle of a run of seven games in 21 days.

He said: "Any result away from home in the SPL is decent, but over the 90 minutes I think we deserved to win on chances created, I don't think Motherwell can have too many complaints.

"It was important to come away from home and put our mark on the game which we did. We are in the middle of a real tough run of matches, Celtic, European ties, the CIS Cup and this game was one on which we could have lost our focus and points.

"But credit to the players, they managed to get up for it again and got the job done."

And as for the controversial 4-5-1 formation? Mowbray said: "I think football has moved on from just leaving two strikers up on the halfway line.

"You have to defend well but you also have to be able to break away and link the play from the back to the front so the strikers need to drop into holes so that when defenders win the ball there is a pass for them."

As Mowbray also pointed out, fans pay little heed to the formation used if their team wins. He said: "Ideally they want to see them win by playing well but when I was a young boy watching Middlesbrough if they won 1-0 I was going home singing, dancing and happy even if they'd maybe just had that one shot at goal."