CUP IS NOW HALF FULL FOR HIBS . .

Hibs fans, for the first time in a while, will have a smile on their face today. Certainly, things are looking up for the Easter Road side after they made it into the quarter-finals of Scottish Communities League Cup after a 7-6 victory on penalties following a 2-2 draw, a match that could kick-start Hibs’ season and relieves some of the pressure building on manager Colin Calderwood.

For all their failings in the league this season, the Capital side displayed great strength of character to dump the Lanarkshire out on penalties thanks, in no small part, to the heroics of two-goal Garry O’Connor and goalkeeper Mark Brown, both in regulation time and in the shoot-out.

Hibs began brightly on a pristine wide open pitch. David Wotherspoon started and early move in finding Martin Scott, who spread the ball across the face of the box to Leigh Griffiths, who strode in to the penalty area and attempted to catch out Darren Randolph with a quick shift of feet before shooting, but the Motherwell goalkeeper saved well with his legs.

The effervescent Griffiths showed sublime skill to take down a long Richie Towell pass forward with his back to goal but rashly blazed his long-range effort over the crossbar.

The on-loan Wolves striker was full of running, and helped hand Hibs the lead on 19 minutes, whipping in a cross from the outer right-hand of the box for O’Connor to nip in at the near post and prod past Randolph for his fifth goal of the season.

Tom Hateley clambered all over Griffiths inside the box moments later, and the striker belied his slight build to turn past his marker and try to lob the goalkeeper, but Randolph stretched to claw the ball from the air. With a little less of his sheer determination to beat Hateley, Griffiths could easily have crumbled under the strong challenge and claimed a penalty.

As the balance of play began to swing in favour of the Steelmen, the Hibs defence had to look lively to contain the hosts’ winger Chris Humphrey. The pacey wide-man twice gained space on the right to deliver inviting crosses, but Sean O’Hanlon kept his cool to turn the ball behind at the far post for a corner before an assured Brown rose to catch a second cross.

After half an hour, Motherwell did breach the Hibs defence and duly equalised. Hateley’s corner from the right swung deep into the area and Michael Higdon knocked the ball back towards the penalty spot, where Keith Lasley met it first time and netted into the bottom left-hand corner.