Motherwell crush Hibernian to tighten their grip on second place

• Fir Park team win comfortably after going 1-0 behind
• Five-point gap opened ahead of third-placed Ross County

by Peter Mason 2 months ago

Motherwell strengthened their hold on second place in the Scottish Premier League on Friday night with an impressive 4-1 win over sixth-placed Hibernian at Fir Park.

Such a comfortable victory had looked unlikely at half-time, when Hibernian led 1-0 through a close-range stooping header from the Yorkshireman Tom Taiwo in the 23rd minute.

But the game turned on its head immediately after the break as another Englishman, Michael Higdon, scored from a header, well inside the penalty box, three minutes after the resumption.

Six minutes later the former Everton striker James McFadden, who had provided the floated cross for Higdon's goal, put the home side 2-1 ahead with a shot into the bottom left corner from just outside the area after neatly side-stepping Matt Done.

Kallum Higginbotham, on loan from Huddersfield Town, put the match beyond Hibs on 67 minutes with a wonderfully executed bicycle kick from just outside the six-yard box, and Tom Hateley, son of the former England forward Mark, sealed what turned out to be an easy win with a drive from 22 yards that took a slight deflection off James McPake with six minutes left. McFadden, who had a fine game, had set up the chance by cleverly rolling the ball in front of Hateley.

Despite the scoreline the two sides had more or less equal possession across the 90 minutes. Crucially, though, Motherwell were more clinical in front of goal and had more shots on target – 13 compared with Hibernian's 10. Motherwell now have 50 points, five ahead of Ross County in third but 12 points behind the leaders, Celtic.