Hibs moved into the last 16 of the Premier Sports Cup this afternoon with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Peterhead.
We dominated from start-to-finish and perhaps should have won by an even greater margin given the number of opportunities we had.
Nonetheless, we topped Group C to progress thanks to a brace from Lewis Miller as well as goals from Rudi Molotnikov and Nathan Moriah-Welsh.
David Gray made six changes to his side following our last competitive outing away to Kelty Hearts.
Josef Bursik returned in goal after missing the last two games through a slight knock whilst, Marvin Ekpiteta, Jordan Obita, Josh Campbell, Joe Newell and Moriah-Welsh all came back into the side after being rotated out in Fife.
After last weekend’s disappointment we were looking to make a bright start and we did by opening the scoring after just five minutes. It came in fortuitous circumstances as Miller’s in-swinging cross evaded everyone in the middle and drifted in at the back post.
We sought a quick-fire second and it took a last-gasp block from Scott Ross to prevent Dylan Vente turning in a Martin Boyle delivery from the right. The defender just getting in ahead of the striker to turn it away.
On 13 minutes we had a wonderful opportunity when Newell split the Peterhead defence allowing Rudi Molotnikov through on goal however, the youngster’s shot on the angle was just wide of the far post.
The visitors were toiling to match the speed and movement of our play and almost played themselves into danger when Campbell pounced on a poor back pass and attempted to set up Vente; his pass was short however we soon regained possession and Miller’s net bound strike was bravely blocked by Caleb Goldie.
We kept the pressure on Peterhead’s goal with Campbell testing Stuart McKenzie with a header following a Newell corner before Vente was denied by the goalkeeper moments later.
Despite our dominance we suffered a blow following a rare Peterhead attack when Warran O’Hora pulled up with what appeared to be a muscle injury and had to be replaced by Rocky Bushiri.
We were soon back on the attack and a hanging cross into the back post was nodded down by Boyle for Campbell who found his shot hooked off the line by Jason Brown.
We were utterly dominant and creating a plethora of opportunities however we were prevented from adding to our slender lead as Peterhead put their bodies on the line time and again with Boyle and Miller having efforts blocked and Campbell’s shot deflected just wide.
We started the second half with plenty of urgency and Moriah-Welsh flashed a cross across the face of Peterhead’s goal in the opening seconds that just needed the slightest of touches.
Our second goal duly arrived on 50 minutes and again it came from Miller, this time he latched onto a cutback from Vente to fire across McKenzie and into the far corner of the net.
Despite now trailing by two goals, there was no change to Peterhead’s formation or tactics as they kept everyone in their defensive third most of the time.
Moriah-Welsh stung the palms of McKenzie with a fierce half-volley from the edge of the box – the goalkeeper doing well to hold onto the shot as it kicked up just in front of him.
On 58 minutes we added a third goal, and it was a wonderful, incisive attack with Miller, Campbell and Boyle all involved before Molotnikov swept the ball home from close range.
With Queen’s Park hammering Kelty Hearts elsewhere we needed to keep pushing for more goals and we went close with a Moriah-Welsh rising effort that finished just over the crossbar.
Jair Tavares and Dylan Levitt were introduced for the final 20 minutes, and they were immediately involved with the former, feeding Obita on the left and from his cross Moriah-Welsh volleyed home from close range to notch his first goal for the Club.
We were ramping up the pressure on the visitors’ goal with Vente denied by McKenzie before Levitt and Moriah-Welsh saw efforts deflected just off target.
There was no let-up in the intensity of our play as Vente was denied by McKenzie before Jason Brown slid in to deny Luke Amos a certain goal in the dying embers as we just failed to add to advantage late on.
