Motherwell 0 Hibs 0
It ended in a point apiece for us and Motherwell this afternoon following a stalemate at Fir Park.
Motherwell – looking for their first back-to-back home wins over us within a season since 2007/08 – had the ball in our net midway through the first half from a Elijah Just effort only for VAR to identify an offside earlier in the move.
Goal scoring opportunities were few and far between for either side - with the closest we came to breaking the deadlock coming from a blocked Jamie McGrath shot and a dipping volley from Martin Boyle.
Head Coach David Gray made two changes to the starting XI from our draw against Livingston last weekend. Jack Iredale and Owen Elding dropped to the bench and were replaced in the side by Jordan Obita and Boyle, respectively.
Boyle skippered the side today as he made his 400th appearance for the Club – becoming only the 16th player to reach this remarkable landmark.
We were in our all-black third kit this afternoon and were backed by a big noisy following from Edinburgh.
We started the game brightly, winning a corner kick inside the opening minute, and from Dan Barlaser’s delivery, Warren O’Hora headed off target at the back post.
Despite this, the opening quarter-of-an-hour was largely uneventful as all too often both sides were guilty of gifting possession away through unenforced errors and preventing any momentum from building.
On 20 minutes we had a promising break when Miguel Chaiwa drove through the middle of the park before finding Nicky Cadden wide left; he whipped in a fantastic low cross along the face of the Motherwell goal but Ante Suto was unable to turn it in from close range.
Two minutes later and Motherwell had the ball in the back of our net. It came from an overhit Boyle touch that Paul McGinn blocked, the ball fortuitously ricocheting into the path of Priestman on the edge of box and although his shot was blocked by Obita, Just smashed a low finish past Raphael Sallinger from the rebound. A lengthy VAR review followed and fortunately for us, Priestman was just offside when he collected the through ball and the goal didn’t stand.
Motherwell had the game’s first – and only – effort on target in the first half on 33 minutes when Elliott Watt’s shot from the edge of our box was comfortably saved by Sallinger low to his right.
There was little else from a first half where neither side held the upper hand and chances were few and far between.
The opening moments of the second half saw both teams pass up big opportunities to break the deadlock.
First was Motherwell’s. They worked the ball down the right channel from a throw in before Stephen O’Donnell picked out the unmarked Tawanda Maswanhise with a cut back; the striker failed to make a clean connection with his effort and that allowed Sallinger to save comfortably low to his left.
Moments later it was our turn. Barlaser spotted the run of Nicky Cadden down the left and found him with an inch-perfect diagonal ball; the winger in turn found the run of Jamie McGrath, who found his shot for goal blocked bravely by a last-gasp sliding challenge from Watt.
Boyle came close to a marking his landmark appearance with spectacular goal when his dipping volley dropped just over the crossbar. It proved to be the attacker’s final touch as he and Šuto were replaced by Elding and Dane Scarlett before the restart.
Further chances came our way when O’Hora’s glancing header flashed across the face of the Motherwell goal without any takers before Felix Passlack’s first-time shot was saved by Ward moments later.
Little had been seen of Motherwell in the final third since the opening moments of the second half and they should’ve made more of a Tom Sparrow cross that Said failed to connect to with, as he diverted his header wide.
Today’s draw kept the six-point gap between the hosts and us in the William Hill Premiership intact, and it is the first time we’ve had back-to-back goalless games since March 2022.
We are next in action following the international break with a home match against Kilmarnock.