St Mirren 3 Hibs 0

Our William Hill Premiership campaign opened with a disappointing 3-0 loss to St Mirren in Paisley.

Despite having enjoyed the best of the first half, we didn’t take our chances and were made to pay for defensive lapses during the second 45 as St Mirren clinically took advantage.

Roland Idowu and Oisin Smyth (2) gave the hosts a victory that their second half performance more than merited, consigning us to an opening day defeat.

David Gray named an unchanged XI following a comfortable win over Peterhead in our last outing.

That meant there was no place in the starting XI for new signing, Mykola Kuharevich; the Ukrainian striker returned to the Club on a season-long loan from Swansea City and had to be content with a place on the bench.

There were league debuts for other summer signings Joe Bursik, Marvin Ekpiteta and Warren O’Hara, while 18 year-old Rudi Molotnikov made his first league start.

St Mirren went into today’s contest on the back of a famous European night for their club and the SMiSA Stadium was understandably buoyant.

We were backed superbly by a sold out away end as 1,600 Hibees made themselves heard throughout.

We started brightly, moving the ball around well and penning the hosts back in the opening exchanges, yet it was the Buddies that carved out the first chance of the game.

A route one clearance downfield from goalkeeper Ellery Balcombe was latched onto by Jonah Ayunga, he held off Ekpiteta before dragging a right foot effort just wide from the edge of our box.

Hibs were soon creating opportunities at the other end as Molotnikov saw his powerful strike bravely blocked by Shaun Rooney.

We recycled the ball and from Jordan Obita’s cross Dylan Vente should have scored only for the ball to bounce up just in front of the Dutchman and catch him on the shin, which took it away from goal rather than over the line.

The Hibees had been the better of the two teams throughout the opening 25 minutes but the quick and physical, direct approach that St Mirren utilise meant they were always a threat on the counterattack.

At every opportunity they sought to get the big boys forward and launch the ball into our box. They also had a dead ball opportunity just outside of our area after Nathan Moriah-Welsh had fouled Idowu, only for Caolan Boyd-Munce to scoop his free-kick high over the crossbar.

Youngster Molotnikov was again impressing with his touch and movement this afternoon and he was coming in for some rough treatment at times as his opponents sought to intimidate him.

On 34 minutes, Toyosi Olusanya showed terrific strength and determination to drive St Mirren forward, he ran some 50 yards before laying the ball off to Idowu who saw his shot deflected into the side netting by Ekpiteta.

As we neared half-time the match began to get feisty with a number of cynical challenges earning some players their names in the match official’s book.

We almost snatched the lead just before the break from an unlikely source as Molotnikov glided past Marcus Fraser before his near post cross was turned toward goal by former Hibee Alex Gogic, only for a terrific save down to his right from Balcombe to spare his blushes.

Stephen Robinson used the break to replace the cautioned Scott Tanser with Jadon Brown and it paid immediate dividends as the substitute linked up with Idowu, who cut inside Moriah-Welsh and fired across Bursik into the far corner of the net.

The game then saw a lengthy delay as the VAR suffered technological issues and became non-operational.

When we did get up and running again, we carved out a couple of chances as Boyle latched onto Molotnikov’s cross, his first shot was blocked whilst his second was saved by Balcombe at his near post.

That would be Rudi’s final involvement as he was replaced by Chris Cadden for the final half-an-hour.  The substitute taking over on the right wing as Boyle moved across to the left.

We soon saw other changes as Luke Amos and Kuharevich replaced Moriah-Welsh and Vente respectively.

With 16 minutes remaining we passed up another gilt-edged opportunity as Boyle raced clean through on goal, opting to take his shot early and being denied by the legs of Balcombe.

It would prove to be another costly miss as the Buddies put the game beyond us, but not before Idowu had struck the post and Smyth shot over from the rebound with the goal at his mercy.

With 77 minutes on the clock, Ekpiteta’s back pass was intercepted by James Scott who did well to turn and hang a cross up for Smyth to guide past Bursik.

Just two minutes later and St Mirren scored again.  This time Scott had all the time he needed to advance down the right unchallenged before his low cross was swept into the net by Smyth once more.