Conditions were dreadful for the start of the match ie pouring rain – which meant that my pen would not work – so this is written from memory. Apologies if I get anything drastically wrong.

It was fairly even at the start with Hutchie playing a 3-5-2 formation, Amy sitting just in front of the back 3. Hutchie won an early corner, Anna’s fine delivery being met by Dani but she didn’t make good contact & the ball didn’t trouble the keeper. Hibs were strong and quick in midfield as expected but some of their tackling was over-zealous, one in particular by Nat Ross on Nikki was ages late with no attempt to get the ball. Hutchie had a piece of good fortune when a well-struck Hibs free-kick hit the post and then another close range shot came back off the same upright. Huchie hit back and from another fine corner by Anna, Molly’s header looked a scorer all the way until it hit the bar. Hibs then took the lead from a controversial penalty. not the award itself which was a clear penalty but when the kick was taken Rachel pulled off a brilliant save, only for the referee to order the kick to be re-taken. The reason he later gave was for ‘3 players in the box’ but declined to say from which team. The rules say that the kick should only be retaken if the defending team players are in the box. Again controversially Hibs then changed their kicker for Kim Little to score. It is unclear if they are allowed to do this. Anyway 1-0 it was and the game raged on with Hibs playing some good football in midfield but our girls not giving way to them and few chances were created. Kim Little did carve herself out a shooting opportunity and hit a rasping drive on goal only for Rachel to pull out a fantastic save to tip the ball over the bar.

By half-time it had stopped raining and the game continued in the same vein with Hibs having more of the ball but Hutchie refusing to give way & the back 3 of Katie, Kirsty and Jen battling away in fine style, whilst the midfield worked hard to deny Hibs space with the result that Rachel didn’t have any real saves to make. Hutchie showed that they could threaten the Hibs defence when they put together some passes and began to grow in confidence. The equaliser duly arrived when Hutchie broke away down the left with a series of neat passes, with Ashley finally setting Molly free on the left of the penalty box with a super through ball. She drove into the area and hit a looping shot which the keper got fingertips to but couldn’t stop. This stung Hibs back into action but again they didn’t really threaten Rachel’s goal until Kim Little went on a long powerful run past at least two of our defenders to hit the ball home. Credit to our troops the heads did not go down and they fought back and didn’t let Hibs take control. We kept plugging away looking for an opening and grabbed the equaliser when Anna and Ashley exchanged passes before Ashley fed the ball down the right for Michelle to latch onto and cut in towards goal. Her first shot was parried by the keeper but Michelle bravely followed up to force the ball into the net. Hibs were gutted that we had again equalised and pressed for the winner but although they had most of the pressure, did not trouble Rachel unduly. In fact Hutchie could have scored the winner when Michelle worked herself into a bit of space about 25 yards from goal but her shot needed to be a bit higher to beat the keeper.

This turned out to be a great result for the girls, who all worked their socks off. You all deserve credit for refusing to allow Hibs to take command and fighting back to equalise twice. A wee special mention for Jen who put in some solid tackles at the back, Amy who worked very hard in midfield and Nikki who several times got back to make vital tackles. But you all should be proud of yourselves for this result and gain confidence that Hibs are not unbeatable.