Super Eagles defender Efe Ambrose is in joyous mood as he helped his team Hibernian to gain promotion into the Scottish Premier league on Saturday.Hibernian will be returning to the Ladbrokes Premiership next season after clinching the Ladbrokes Championship title in style with a convincing 3-0 victory over Queen of the South. Darren McGregor (2) and David Gray were the scorers as Hibernian wrapped up the title with a dominant display against the Doonhamers. Had it not been for the heroics of visiting keeper Lee Robinson then the margin of Hibernian’s victory would’ve been far greater following a dominant display in the Leith sunshine.
Neil Lennon made two changes to the Hibernian side following last weekend’s draw with Morton; Andrew Shinnie and Fraser Fyvie both returned to the starting XI whilst Brian Graham and Marvin Bartley dropped down to the bench. The Easter Road men went into game knowing victory would likely secure their place back in the top flight and they set about their task with purpose. They were quickly onto the attack and had opportunities early on through Shinnie and John McGinn as the pressed for a quire-fire breakthrough.
In the 8th minute Queen of the South had goalkeeper Robinson to thank for keeping the sides level when he produced a terrific save to deny Martin Boyle at the near post.
Queens went into the match with an outside chance of making the play-offs and they let their attacking intentions known when Lyndon Dykes flashed a shot wide of goal from the edge of the Hibernian penalty box. Dykes’ opportunity would prove only brief respite for the visiting defence and in the 14th minute their resolve was finally broken when McGregor looped a back post header over the stranded Robinison from McGinn’s free kick delivery and into the net. Surprisingly it was the 31-year-old’s first goal of the campaign and it was fitting that it arrived on the day he helped his boyhood heroes clinch their place back in the top flight of Scottish football.
The home side were buzzing and they were denied the opportunity of a quick-fire second goal as Shinnie won possession from the restart and released Jason Cummings through on goal before being clattered into; referee Barry Cook pulled play back for the infringement on the midfielder when playing an advantage would’ve left Cummings with only Robinson to beat.
Despite their dominance it took a stunning point-blank save from Ofir Marciano to keep the home side ahead after Thomson’s shot from the edge of the box had dropped kindly to Stephen Dobbie and his net bound effort was acrobatically kept out by the goalkeeper.
McGinn and Shinnie both had opportunities to extend Hibs lead whilst Dom Thomas could and should’ve done better at the other end when he was picked out just in front of goal with a driven cross only to get his strike all wrong and screw the ball wide of goal.
Robinson then produced a stunning save to deny Boyle’s angled effort however from the resultant corner kick McGregor prodded home his second of the afternoon and give his side a comfortable lead.
After the break Hibernian continued their pursuit of more goals and it took a terrific save from Robinson to deny Cummings a goal in the opening seconds of the second half.
A third Hibernian goal duly arrived moments later when skipper Gray headed in another fantastic corner kick delivery from Cummings.
If it hadn’t been for goalkeeper Robinson the visitors would’ve been on the wrong end of a heavy defeat and he again came to their rescue when his quick reactions prevented Dylan McGeouch getting onto the scoresheet. Substitute James Keatings had a further opportunity to make an immediate impact but didn’t get enough power or direction on his effort before Robinson produced another fantastic save at the death to keep out Cummings vicious shot.
After briefly heading into the dressing room at full-time the team returned to take a well-deserved lap of honour as ‘championees’ rang out from the Easter Road faithful.
With the league title now wrapped up the Easter Road men can focus fully on their defence of the William Hill Scottish Cup and their semi-final showdown with Aberdeen next weekend.
Ambrose made an emergency loan move few months ago from Celtic after falling out of favour of the Coach.
Post a Comment