Hibs have effectively been kicked OUT of the Premier Sports Cup after fielding ineligible Rocky Bushiri.
Lee Johnson 's side were on the verge of elimination anyway after Wednesday night's 2-2 draw with Greenock Morton. The Championship club went ahead through Grant Gillespie's spot-kick before Ewan henderson levelled. However, the hosts missed their first three penalties in the shoot-out, going on to lose 3-1 as 'Ton claimed the bonus point.
That left Hibs needing Clyde to beat Falkirk this weekend in order to top the group and progress to the knock-out stages. Had the Bairns taken something from the game, then the Easter Road club would have had to rely on an unlikely set of results from various other fixtures to go their way in order to finish as one of the three best runners up. That's all moot now however, after the sanctions imposed at an SPFL hearing this afternoon make it impossible for the capital club to qualify, regardless of what happens.
The result will be recorded as a 3-0 win to Morton - leaving Hibs on six points after four games and unable to qualify. They have also been slapped with a £5,000 fine with £4,000 suspended. Bushiri, who has been named by the SPFL, took the pitch against Morton when they were meant to be serving a suspension in the competition. The SPFL slapped the club with a charge and the outcome was announced after the Hampden hearing..
The Leith outfit made it all the way to the final last season. They shocked Rangers in the semis with a 3-1 win, Martin Boyle banging in a hat-trick to book a final date with Celtic. Former boss Jack Ross didn't get the chance to lead them out at the national stadium however. He was sacked just a week before the showpiece occasion, with club legend David Gray placed in temporary charge.
Despite Paul Hanlon opening the scoring, the Hoops came roaring back. A Kyogo Furuhashi double was enough to turn the game around, allowing Ange Postecoglou to lift his first trophy as Celtic manager.
There will be no trip along the M8 in the latter stages this season however, with Hibs now out of the cup. They were booed off after their spot kick failure against Morton, which Johnson fully accepted.
But the Hibs boss took issue with the structure of the competition, and branded the lack of a fourth official on the touchline as "amateur." He said: There's a lot of things I'm learning, we're learning - the formats, the referees, the opposition. There was a lot of time wasting today, how there was only four minutes at the end I'll never know.
"The momentum was sapped out of it. There was no fourth official in what's supposedly the third biggest competition in the league You look at these things and go "hmm, that's a little amateur in my eyes". But that's not an excuse. We had to win the game and we didn't."
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