St Mirren followed up on European excellence with domestic delight in a convincing 3-0 William Hill Premiership win over Hibernian in Paisley.
After winning through to the next qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League with a 4-1 home win over Icelandic side Valur on Thursday, Stephen Robinson’s side kept up the good form in their league opener with Roland Idowu, the 22-year-old midfielder on loan from Shrewsbury, firing them ahead three minutes into the second half with a terrific strike.
An element of farce was introduced to the afternoon when the VAR system went down moments later and play continued for a while before the system returned to partial operation.
Saints substitute Oisin Smyth, on for Dennis Adeniran, headed in a second in the 77th minute and drove in a third two minutes later to boost St Mirren before they return to European action against SK Brann on Thursday – while sending David Gray’s Hibs side back to Leith to think again.
Perhaps surprisingly after Thursday’s exertions, Robinson made only two changes.
Saints captain Mark O’Hara was out through injury and Jaden Brown dropped to the bench as Scott Tanser and Caolan Boyd-Munce came in.
There were league debuts for Hibs’ summer signings Josef Bursik, Marvin Ekpiteta and Warren O’Hora while Ukrainian striker Mykola Kuharevich, who signed on another loan for the Easter Road side on Saturday, started on the bench.
Both sides came close early on. A low drive by Saints attacker Jonah Ayunga from the edge of the box after seven minutes sped past Bursik’s far post, before Hibs wide-man Jordan Obita’s cross from the left could not be converted by Easter Road forward Dylan Vente at the other end.
In the 35th minute a powerful run by St Mirren striker Toyosi Olusanya took him to the edge of the Hibs box and when he laid the ball off to Idowu, his deflected strike just missed the near post, the corner coming to nothing.
Moments later, former Hibernian player Alex Gogic almost turned a cross from 18-year-old Rudi Molotnikov, making his first league start for Hibs, into his own net, alert Buddies goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe saving the day.
The Paisley side sprung out of the traps in the second half.
Brown, who had replaced Tanser at the break, fed Idowu down the left and he turned inside Hibs defender Lewis Miller and curled the ball past Bursik and into the far corner of the net.
There was a cheer all around the ground when it was announced VAR was non-operational and after a lengthy delay it was then announced that the game would continue without its use until further notice.
Hibs roared back and attacker Martin Boyle had two efforts on goal – the first blocked, the second saved easily by Balcombe – as it was then announced VAR had returned to partial operation.
The game opened up.
In the 73rd minute Boyle raced clear of the St Mirren defence but a poor finish allowed Balcombe to save.
Idowu came in from the right-hand side and crashed a shot off the post from 16 yards with Smyth, signed from Oxford in June, unable to guide the rebound into the net.
However, he was much more accurate when fellow substitute James Scott worked hard to keep the ball in on the byline and chipped for Smyth to power in a header.
As Hibs staggered, Smyth then converted a cutback from Scott to clinch all three points – 10 minutes were added for the VAR delay – and set them up nicely for another tilt at Europe next week.
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