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Fujitsu Big Circus Saturday 15th September,
The Hibs came away with a forfeit win Saturday, after the Swiss fell victim to holiday traffic and arrived at the rustic Big Circus pitch 45 minutes after kick-off time. But the two teams were eager for a match and agreed to a friendly, which was as hard-fought as any of our regular matches have been.
The Hibs seemed a bit tired from their 90-minute warm-up and the Swiss came out stronger in the early going. Kirk was put through early and had a good chance from in the box but failed to connect. The Hibs defense then stabilized and we began to work the ball around the giant pitch, but were unable to come up anything interesting and gave away a few corners on counter attacks. Good passing out of the Hibs midfield finally found Andre with some room to work on the left, he blasted in a good shot from a tight angle to put us ahead 1-0 into the half.
In the second half the Hibs began to take control - Andre and Mike were both stopped on point blank shots by the fill-in Swiss keeper. Then Mick found the back of the net to make it 2-0, marking his return to the forward spot with a nice goal off of a build up and cross from the right side. In the final minutes the Hibs tired and a good run by one of the Swiss midfielders got him into the box where he was brought down by Hitoshi - the ref rightfully pointed to the spot and Kirk stepped up to calmly score the PK.
End result 2-1 Hibs. We've had some battles with the Swiss over the years and this was no different, it was a "friendly" but everyone was intense throughout..
Report by Jay Alabaster
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