Today I was lucky enough to turn on the Tele and see that my home team, Hibernian were playing in the semi final of the Scottish Cup against Falkirk. I decided to watch the match despite Hibs already being 2-0 down in a short space of time. No sooner had I sat down on the sofa when Falkirk scored a third goal. I jumped out of my seat in frustration and my emotions were pretty high since that third goal. I was chanting and screaming at the screen for a while feeling that Hibs were playing really poorly. Scrappy passes between players, trips and off target kicks seemed to be what Hibs were all about at that stage.
I felt that the defence throughout the whole match was rubbish and the Falkirk side were easily getting through to attack our goal. The third goal from Falkirk should never have happened as they got past our defence so easily and the shot at goal wasn’t from a long distance. I was watching the game with my Dad and we were chanting like mad hoping that our team would improve. Half time arrived and we were fuming. My Uncle and cousin were through at the match in Hampden in Glasgow unlike us back in Edinburgh where we watched the match on the TV. They phoned us up half time to say how disappointed they were with how Hibs were playing and we agreed. They decided to stay though, hoping some fortune would come our way…
The second half began with little chance of Hibs being able to fight back but a brilliant shot taken by 18 year old Alex Harris secured Hibs their first goal of the match. I was very impressed with the speed of Harris and also because of his young age and lack of experience yet he delivered for the team today. Harris gained excellent control of the ball before making a fast run avoiding all of the Falkirk players before taking a shot at goal which deflected of the Goal Keeper and hit the net, an awesome goal!
Hibs were given a penalty as Handling was tripped up by one of Falkirk’s players who received a yellow card. Leigh Griffiths clearly looked nervous as he got prepared to take the penalty which I feel didn’t help him achieve getting past the Goal Keeper. We were hanging on the edge of our seat at this point. Griffiths missed the goal which deflected off the Goal Keeper while Eoin Doyle and Griffiths ran towards the rolling ball only to almost collide with each other while messing up any opportunity to get a goal completely. I was screaming at the screen! However Hibs scored an excellent goal when Alex Harris made a superb pass to Griffiths inside the box before he took a shot at goal which went in. Hibs 2, Falkirk 3. We were running out of time though.
The third goal from Eoin Boyle was good where he just kept pushing forward towards the goal after gaining control, weaving in between the Falkirk players and taking a clear shot into the right hand side of the goal. Me and my Dad were jumping up like mad! Maybe there was a chance we could actually win this game. I still felt though that the Hibs defence was weak but we were playing much stronger in the second half than in the first where Falkirk were the better team. Amazingly since this was a semi-final match, a further thirty minutes of play followed where Hibs seemed to lose their second half drive. Falkirk also seemed to struggle in this extra session though must be respected for their first half performance and it should be mentioned that they are a First Division team playing Hibernian, a Premier League team. With under ten minutes to go, Hibs scored a fantastic final winning goal taken by Leigh Griffiths. He takes a corner which doesn’t amount to much but while other players are fighting to gain control of the ball within the box, Griffiths is running backward covering the left side at the rear. Dodds from Falkirk kicks the ball clear but it falls within Griffiths’ range. An excellent demonstration of footwork as Griffiths controls the ball turning into the direction of the goal posts, the ball hardly moves and Griffiths takes a mighty power shot at the goal and scores! The Hibees go mad and cheer (me included) as they secure their place in the Scottish Cup Final which will be against Celtic. We will need a great deal of luck and skill to have any chance of beating Celtic but this was just an incredible game. I feel exhausted from just watching it and going through the emotions of losing, scoring some goals then winning. A very exciting match that I’m glad I managed to watch. Hopefully we can win the Scottish Cup that we have so longed for, a Cup we haven’t won for a very long time…
