Hibs v Aberdeen: Three things we learned from the Premiership match at Easter Road
1 Ofir Marciano undoubtedly felt hard done by when he lost his place to Chris Maxwell, a decision made by former head coach Paul Heckingbottom which saw the Israeli internationalist relegated to the bench for Hibs previous 13 matches. But he returned to show what a good shot-stopper he can be, getting down quickly to take Sam Cosgrove’s low shot at his near post and then following that up with a superb double save, pushing away James Wilson’s powerful shot and then somehow getting his left boot to Sam Cosgrove’s follow-up to help the Easter Road side to their first clean sheet in the Premiership since the opening day of the season.
2 Scott Allan can infuriate, looking to play the killer ball by attempting to play it through the eye of a needle when a more obvious, safer pass is on. But the midfielder’s vision is second-to-none and allied to that ability to supply defence-splitting passes helps conjure up some breath-taking goals. Having spotted Martin Boyle’s run, he hesitated momentarily to judge the pass to perfection, placing it inside Scott McKenna to allow the winger to take it without breaking stride to round Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis and place it in the net.
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Hide Ad3 Hibs left Pittodrie earlier in the season kicking themselves for not having taken all three points, the now free-scoring Christian Doidge having passed up a string of gilt-edged chances to put the game beyond Aberdeen before Sam Cosgrove grabbed a late equaliser for the Dons. But revenge is sweet and the capital outfit exacted it in full with their best performance of the season, full of attacking endeavour which resulted in three well-taken goals while in defence they were absolutely resolute displaying few signs of that unfortunate tendency to ship avoidable goals which has blighted their season thus far.