For the second time this season Hibs and St Mirren served up a goal-fest and thankfully on this occasion we came out on top to book a return to Hampden.
St Mirren deservedly led at the break thanks to Scott Tanser’s brilliant strike on the cusp of half-time before we roared back with a stunning display of attacking football.
Two goals in as many minutes from Will Fish and Dylan Vente turned the tie on its head and although substitute Keanu Baccus levelled for St Mirren, Starman Martin Boyle struck twice to put us into the last four.
Nick Montgomery made two changes to the side that defeated St Johnstone at the weekend with Christian Doidge and Youan both restored to the starting XI.
Adam Le Fondre and Jair Tavares dropped down to the bench where they were joined by 16-year-old Rory Whittaker; The youngster hoping for another chance to impress after becoming the Club’s youngest-ever First Team player at the weekend.
The match started at a terrific pace and with both sides committed to attacking football that led to an open and entertaining contest.
St Mirren won on their last visit to Easter Road and went into the match brimming with confidence, unbeaten in their last ten outings.
The Buddies carved out the first chance of the evening when Tanser’s cross from the left was headed goalward by Greg Kiltie; the former Kilmarnock midfielder’s header was on target however it lacked any power or direction to test David Marshall who gathered easily.
Kiltie had another effort moments later when he let fly from the edge of our box, only to send his shot high and wide of goal under pressure from Jordan Obita.
The swirling wind and rain made playing conditions difficult for both teams as Storm Agnes arrived in Leith.
On 23 minutes a lovely dink from Joe Newell almost found Boyle’s run only to bounce just ahead of the winger and allowed Zach Hemming to gather.
Soon after St Mirren should have scored when a free-kick from the right allowed former Hibee, Alex Gogic, to stab a shot straight at Marshall from point-blank range.
Play continued to flow from end-to-end and from a Vente cross, Doidge did brilliantly to loop a header goalward from 16 yards that Hemming held comfortably under his crossbar.
A simple ball over the top on 32 minutes found Toyosi Olusanya running through on goal; with Marsh rushing out to meet the striker he lobbed it over the stranded goalkeeper and fortunately wide of goal.
St Mirren were carving out the more clear-cut opportunities in the game although we went close with a wonderful in-swinging Newell cross that was just beyond the sliding frames of Rocky and Boyle.
Two minutes before the break and St Mirren deservedly went ahead. A cross from the right was nodded down by Mikael Mandron and Tanser smashed a half-volley beyond Marshall on the angle.
It would be hard to argue that St Mirren hadn’t deserved to be ahead at the interval and their gameplan was working to perfection as they nullified our flair players whilst carving out several clear-cut chances themselves at the other end.
Whatever the boss said at half-time, it clearly worked wonders as we returned for the second half in a determined mood and made a blistering start.
We could’ve levelled shortly after the restart when a cross from the right found Rocky unmarked just in front of goal only for the defender to slice his shot wide of the far post.
Nevertheless, an equaliser was merely delayed by a couple of minutes as Boyle’s corner kick was flicked on by Fish and found its way into the net.
The game was then turned on its head as we struck a quickfire second just two minutes later when Miller’s cross found Vente unmarked inside the box and the striker spun before clinically firing low past Hemming.
It was the third consecutive match that the Dutch striker has found the target in and his fifth goal of the campaign.
Stephen Robinson’s response was to make a triple change as he threw on Baccus, Conor McMenamin and Alex Greive to try and turn the tide.
On 68 minutes a terrific slaloming run from Boyle from wide left concluded with the winger arching a low shot towards the far corner of the net that Hemming pushed away at full stretch.
We made a triple change of our own five minutes later with Paul Hanlon, Josh Campbell and Whittaker all stepping off the bench.
Before the trio had even touched the ball St Mirren were level as substitute Baccus drilled a wonderful low finish beyond the despairing dive of Marshall to spark the previously silenced Paisley support back into life.
Their celebrations would be short lived however as we restored our lead just four minutes later. Whittaker fed the ball wide right to Miller who in turn laid it off to Campbell; the midfielder lined up a shot from the edge of the box that he failed to catch properly, and it fortuitously landed at the feet of Boyle who smashed it in off the underside of the crossbar.
With four minutes remaining we had an excellent chance to put the tie beyond the visitors when Boyle was put clean through on goal only for Hemming to deny him by making a big save with his legs.
That kept St Mirren’s thin hopes alive and they almost snatched an unlikely late leveller only for Obita to deflect Baccus’ powerful strike just wide of Marshall’s near post.
St Mirren pressed hard in the dying minutes to ensure a nervy finale for us however deep into time added on Boyle made sure of victory when he again raced through on goal and this time made no mistake with a clinical finish to notch his second goal of the evening and our fourth.
Hibernian: Marshall, Miller, Fish, Youan (Whittaker 73’), Vente (Campbell 73’), Boyle (Delferriere 93’), Newell, Jeggo, Obita, Doidge (Le Fondre 55’), Bushiri (Hanlon 73’). Substitutes not used: Boruc, Levitt, Stevenson, Jair.
St Mirren: Hemming, Fraser, Gogic (Nahmani 81’), Taylor, Strain, Boyd-Munce (McMenamin 63’), O’Hara, Tanser, Kiltie (Greive 63’), Mandron (Baccus 63’), Olusanya (Small 81’). Substitutes not used: Urminsky, Bolton, Dunn, Flynn.
Referee: David Munro.
Attendance: 9,982.
