Hibs 1-0 Aberdeen: Calderwood demands more

The technique and placement of Sodje's 15th minute thunderbolt, his third goal in eight games, was glorious to behold for the 300 or so Hibs fans in a paltry Pittodrie crowd of 7400.

But the manner of his side's victory did little to please Colin Calderwood. The Hibs boss made nine changes from the team beaten 4-2 at the same venue in October and said as many new additions may be required for his side's next trip to the north east, so unhappy was he that his players appeared content to soak up long periods of Aberdeen pressure after going ahead.

"There has been a change around and results have improved (recently]," said Calderwood. "But we have to be better in longer moments of the game than we were today. If they believe that's enough, there might be another nine changes the next time we come back.

"I was pleased with the opening period of the game. We got ourselves into the ascendancy, had some nice phases of play, and got the goal. Then we were poor for a long patch. They looked as if they wanted to just get through the game and that might be enough, and hope it was enough, but they've got to show a bit more desire."

Derek Riordan and Francis Dickoh, two mainstays of Calderwood's team, did not make the trip north. A dead leg put paid to Riordan's inclusion in the travelling party, while Dickoh continues his recovery from a hamstring injury. Although the lack of a key striker and centre back was a blow to Hibs, the pair's absence was cushioned by two players who filled those positions to significant effect, goalscorer Sodje and the seemingly omnipresent David Stephens.

Early on, it was Aberdeen's Sone Aluko who looked most in the mood. Aluko's laconic style belied his fierce appetite for the game, his flailing 'rubber' legs flummoxing Hibs left-back Callum Booth to create space four minutes in. Despite his subsequent cross coming to nothing, Aluko picked up possession moments later in a central area and, 35 yards from goal, he launched an audacious long-range effort that packed power but lacked direction, goalkeeper Mark Brown claiming the ball easily.

Fans expecting elements of end-of-season nothingness would have been pleasantly surprised at an entertaining, end-to-end first half. Hibs signalled their ambition early on, with Ricardo Vaz Te executing a short, neat one-two with Thornhill to eliminate the obstacle of a last defender on the edge of the box and lashing his strike at goal, drawing a good save from Jamie Langfield before referee Bobby Madden spotted his assistant's offside flag.

When Stephens was not playing superhero in the Hibs defence - the 19-year-old read the game brilliantly to clear countless crosses into Brown's box - he was ably assisted by his young backline brethren. Richie Towell, for example, showed great alertness to pick a low Chris Maguire cross from the toe of the lurking Peter Pawlett after seven minutes.

The Dons' on-loan Blackburn striker Nick Blackman, a prolific goalscorer for Craig Brown's Motherwell before following his manager to Pittodrie, was a considerable menace to the Hibs rearguard with his height and upper-body strength. When he was able to make space for himself 25 yards from goal after nine minutes with a deft first touch from Derek Young's forward pass, Blackman fizzed a shot just over Brown's bar.

Aberdeen poured forward without ever troubling Brown and Hibs responded with a blunt and cutting riposte on 15 minutes, their first chance buried mercilessly by Sodje.

Matt Thornhill seized possession after Pawlett lost control of the ball 30 yards out, played the ball forward into the feet of Sodje on the edge of the box, who, with a yard or two to spare, quickly turned and thumped a rising strike inside the left-hand post. Langfield had no answer to the power and pinpoint accuracy of the Hibs man's instinctive effort.

Sodje lapped up the adulation as a rousing chorus of his name penetrated the cold Granite City air from the green and white contingent in the South Stand, but before long he and his team-mates were again on the back foot.

Scotland striker Chris Maguire may still be dining off his wonder strike against Iceland from the half-way line at Easter Road earlier in the season, and he again showed great skill on 24 minutes as the Dons came close to levelling. Taking a pass from Smith on the left, Maguire drifted infield and unleashed a 25-yard daisy-cutter that clattered off the base of the left-hand post. Brown was beaten, but Hibs handed a reprieve.

Victor Palsson, who allowed Maguire to skip away from him before shooting well over ten minutes later, experienced a quiet afternoon in central midfield as much of the play was channelled down either flank, the hosts relying mostly on Aluko, Derek Young and Steven Smith to create a threat.

Calderwood emerged from his dugout to implore his young team to drive forward where possible, but even when Hibs cleared the ball from danger and into the Aberdeen half there was little forward motion in pursuit of a counter attack. The visitors' dressing room at half-time may not have been for the faint-hearted, but Calderwood must have been pleased with the immediate response - positive, but brief - of his players after the break.

Soon after the restart, Thornhill fed the ball forward to Vaz Te, who guided it across the edge of the box into the path of Sodje. After pausing to assess his options, the goalscorer rashly blazed the ball over.

Callum Booth embarked on a rare foray forward on 55 minutes, cutting inside his nemesis Aluko and administering some of the same medicine the Hibs defender himself had been prescribed regularly in the first half. As Dons midfielder Robert Milsom closed him down on the outer right-hand corner of the penalty area, Booth sclaffed his effort over Langfield's goal.

Hibs carried increasingly less menace in attack, with Vaz Te's touch becoming more unsure as the game wore on and Sodje, after his stunning and ultimately decisive strike, drifting out of the equation altogether.

The two struggled to find their feet on the thinning surface and made way for Colin Nish and David Wotherspoon 13 minutes after the interval. "They were goosed," explained Calderwood afterwards. "The week's had an effect on everyone. We knew we had a good arsenal on the bench so that's why the fresh legs up front. As the game went on, if we'd stayed with eleven fresh men and been better with the ball, we'd have been able to counter and created more opportunities than we did."

Almost immediately after coming on, Wotherspoon and team-mate Lewis Stevenson carried Hibs hopes in a two-on-two showdown in front of the Aberdeen goal. After the substitute squared for Stevenson on the edge of the box, the latter, who in hindsight should have shot first time, took a touch and was closed down quickly by Langfield, who beat the shot away with his body.

Aluko squandered a six-yard chance of an equaliser ten minutes later, showing no poise whatsoever as a low cross ran through to him and, in space, he skewed his strike wide.

From relieved to aggrieved, Hibs carved out a promising opening soon after, only to be stopped in their tracks by referee Madden. Wotherspoon, bombing down the left, managed to dodge a meaty sliding tackle by Dons defender Smith, and raced clear with options available in the box. The young Hibs man was incredulous at Madden's subsequent whistle, blown only to administer a booking to Smith for his apparent intent. With time to regroup, the Aberdeen defence dealt with the resultant Hibs free-kick into the penalty area with relative ease.

Nish doggedly chased down a forward ball late on, beating Nikola Vujadinovic in the race towards the edge of the 18-yard box before sliding a pass across to Miller in the clear, but the Hibs midfielder dallied with just Langfield to beat and was muscled off the ball by a backtracking Dons defender.

Smith struck a long-range piledriver narrowly wide of Brown's goal late on, and Dons replacement Josh Magennis saw his acrobatic, looping header come crashing off the top of the crossbar. Hibs only just held on to claim three points, but for boss Calderwood the talking point was not the result.

"It's irrelevant to a certain degree," said the Hibs boss. "What I'm looking at is attitude and performance of players, being able to come in and handle situations, and having enthusiasm to play the game. But we looked very leggy and tired.

"This is all about improvement. Every time we step on to the pitch, we've got to see things that are better. In games when it's really difficult, we've got to cope better. That was a game where we could drive on, have a unity, have a work ethic off the ball. It was slightly better, more cohesive, and when we did that I felt we had control of periods of the game."