CHARACTERISED as a meeting of two teams already in crisis before a ball had been kicked in the new Premiership campaign, Hibernian finished it buoyed by the hope of a dramatic late winner.
It was a victory laced in controversy, however, after St Johnstone midfielder Murray Davidson was shown a straight red card for a forceful lunge on Ryan Porteous just short of the hour mark. When Hibs’ otherwise impressive debutant Marijan Cabraja was similarly late with a challenge on Ryan McGowan nine minutes from time, Saints were apoplectic at referee Euan Anderson’s decision to dish out only yellow.
The home side looked to have held Hibs at bay until the final minute of the 90. Ewan Henderson flung over the visitors’ ninth corner of the match and Josh Campbell’s header looked to have crept over the line before Rocky Bushiri made certain.
Bushiri was at the centre of a calamitous build-up to the league season when he played in the Premier Sports Cup against Morton despite being suspended. Hibs were already out of the competition before their punishment but the episode, plus work permit delays and a lengthy injury list, hinted at trouble ahead for the capital outfit.
New Manager Lee Johnson, though, is adamant he always had faith his new-look team, who are next challenged with an Edinburgh derby against rivals Hearts, could come good.
“We’ve got to go through a lot,” he said. “We’re a brand new team, a brand new manager, new coaching staff. We’ve got to build resilience up.
“It was nice at the end, it was like a little mosh pit in the dugout. Everybody was buzzing, the fans were buzzing. They stuck with us, which was good.
“We’ve never been in as bad a place as has been portrayed. We’ve had a strong belief in what we’re doing.”
Hibs dominated possession before Davidson’s 59th-minute red card but a lack of a cutting edge again looked set to be their Achilles heel. Henderson skewed his volley wide in the 29th minute from a searching Cabraja cross and Jair Tavares drilled over after chopping inside on the left just a minute later.
St Johnstone were revamped and rejuvenated after the break and, after summer signing Élie Yoan deflected a Cabraja shot onto the roof of the net, Graham Carey troubled David Marshall with a long-range drive that the Hibs skipper pushed behind for a corner.
By then, Davidson had taken his long walk up the tunnel and Hibs were peppering the box with crosses at the other end. Saints new recruit Alex Mitchell, on loan from Millwall, was in the right place at the right time to head clear brilliantly after Joe Newell had nodded dangerously into the six-yard box. Finally, the dam burst with minutes to spare.
“We should have capitalised a little bit more in the first-half,” added Johnson, who confessed he would have been disappointed with Davidson’s dismissal had he been in the opposite dugout. “But I think in the end, we wore them down, created space and made them a little bit leggy with our athleticism.”
Also out of the League Cup, Saints battle manfully throughout but, with just 32 per cent possession, rarely looked like winning. Had they kept 11 men on the pitch, manager Callum Davidson is convinced, however, they would not have lost.
“I'm just looking for consistency in decisions,” he said. “That's the biggest thing for me. There are two massive talking points in the game. You come to the Murray Davidson sending off, whether it was or not is debatable. You come to that second tackle, to me it's the exact same tackle, there is no difference at all, and he gives him a yellow.
“We concede the goal in the 90th minute due to those decisions. It's really hard to take. We definitely would have got at least a draw. We came back into the game until that decision.”
