Hibs 1 St Mirren 2
St Mirren took all three points from their visit to Easter Road thanks to a first half double from Conor McMenamin.
Hibs had chances with Elie Youan striking the post in the first half before Martin Boyle saw his penalty kick saved by Ellery Balcombe after the break.
In the dying embers, Nicky Cadden pulled one back with our second spot kick of the afternoon before the same player thought he equalised 60 seconds later - only for VAR to chalk it off due to an offside against Dwight Gayle, whom it struck enroute.
David Gray made two enforced changes due to Mykola Kuharevich’s suspension and Lewis Miller only being fit enough for a place on the bench.
Chris Cadden came in at right back with Youan starting through the middle in attack.
The visitors made one change with McMenamin coming in for former Hibee, James Scott.
That change would pay dividends after only 17 minutes as McMenamin broke the deadlock with a near post finish after a terrific delivery from Scott Tanser to pick him out.
A moment of magic from Youan almost hauled us level as he evaded a challenge, played a neat one-two with Kwon, before spinning his marker and smashing a shot off Balcombe’s post that crashed back into play before being hooked clear.
Instead, the visitors were rewarded with a second goal soon after when McMenamin stole possession from O’Hora on halfway before driving forward and slamming a shot high into our net at Josef Bursik’s near post.
Hibs were fortunate not to fall further behind when Greg Kiltie nodded down to Killian Phillips inside our box and his snapshot was deflected just past the post.
Gray made a triple change during the interval with Dylan Levitt, Nicky Cadden and Rocky Bushiri replacing Nectar Triantis, Kwon and O’Hora respectively.
We started the second period positively, pushing forward and testing the visitors’ defence with crosses that they dealt with comfortably.
On 52 minutes, Phillips tried his luck from a free-kick on the edge of our penalty box that Bursik dealt with easily.
Soon after, St Mirren went desperately close to grabbing a third goal. Tanser’s corner kick was met by the head of Richard Taylor, it beat Bursik only to crash back off the crossbar before Alex Gogic headed the rebound over from point blank range.
On the hour mark, we were handed a lifeline when O’Hara tripped Boyle inside the box and we were awarded a penalty kick. Boyle took the kick himself however his effort was saved by Balcombe low to his right.
That was the signal for both sides to make changes. Our final substitutions saw Gayle and Harry McKirdy on for the closing stages.
We would see a lot of the ball in the final 20 minutes without seriously testing a resolute St Mirren defence that appeared comfortable – until time added on.
Hibs were awarded a penalty kick in the 93rd minute when Joe Newell’s shot struck an arm.
This time, Nicky Cadden stepped forward to send Balcombe the wrong way to notch his first goal for the Club.
Sixty seconds later, we thought we were level when we broke down the right and Nicky Cadden again scored with a thumping shot only for a VAR review to identify offside against Gayle to deny us at the death.