Embattled Hibernian finally had something to cheer about after Rocky Bushiri’s last-gasp equaliser salvaged a 3-3 draw at home to Aberdeen in a topsy-turvy Easter Road showdown featuring three stoppage-time goals.
David Gray’s bottom-of-the-table side led at the break through a deflected Joe Newell strike but looked set to go down for a third consecutive loss and ninth game in a row without a win after goals from Dons pair Jamie McGrath and Nicky Devlin.
Hibs then equalised in the second minute of added time through a Nicky Cadden free-kick but then seemed destined for defeat once more when Reds sub Ester Sokler fired in an overhead kick in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
But, incredibly, centre-back Bushiri – who had not scored in almost three years at Easter Road – popped up with a close-range finish at the end to stop Jimmy Thelin’s side moving level with Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Gray made four changes to the side that started the 4-1 defeat at Dundee, including dropping under-fire goalkeeper Josef Bursik and replacing him with Jordan Smith.
Thelin made three changes to the side that suffered a first league defeat of the season at St Mirren on Saturday, including handing former Hibs attacker Kevin Nisbet a start.
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After Bushiri blocked a McGrath effort from close range in the 11th minute, Hibs began to look the likelier side. Elie Youan saw a stinging shot pushed behind by Dimitar Mitov before Bushiri headed over from Nicky Cadden’s corner.
Bushiri was in the thick of it and he made another brave block from a McGrath shot in the 25th minute.
Hibs made the breakthrough in the 40th minute when Newell’s powerful shot from 25 yards out took a big deflection off Devlin’s head and wrongfooted Mitov on its way into the net.
The hosts threatened again either side of half-time, with Warren O’Hora heading wide and then Newell firing a shot against the post from the edge of the box.
Shayden Morris replaced Tepi Keskinen in the 54th minute and it paid off within seconds as the jet-heeled winger got in behind the Hibs defence and crossed from the right for Duk. The striker’s back-heel was scrambled clear by Jack Iredale but only as far as McGrath, who shot low into the corner from eight yards out with the aid of a slight deflection.
The Dons got themselves ahead for the first time in the 76th minute when Devlin pounced to send a looping over the exposed Smith from just inside the box after the keeper had come out of his goal and been unable to get a clean punch on Graeme Shinnie’s corner.
Then came the chaotic period of stoppage time that ended with Hibs celebrating a much-needed reprieve and the shellshocked Aberdeen players wondering how they had twice let victory slip from their grasp in the closing moments.
