Hibs stay in the run

Hibernians 1
Cohen 24;
Floriana 0

Andrew Cohen struck an important winner for Hibernians yesterday to keep alive their hopes of challenging Valletta for the league championship.

Thanks to this victory, Hibs have bridged the gap with the leaders to three points but Jesmond Zerafa’s Whites play their match in hand today against Birkirkara.

Valletta need no-one to remind them that a win today would take them within sight of back-to-back titles. Yet, the Paolites still have plenty to play for this season.

Suggestions that the Premier League race has suddenly become a procession for Valletta were often dismissed by the pundits.

But even the most ardent Hibs supporter would have found it tough to counter those claims had Mark Miller’s side failed to bag the full points yesterday.

Miller retained the starting XI that beat Sliema Wanderers in their last outing. Bjorn Kristensen was again instructed to take up sweeping duties as the Englishman again settled for a flexible 4-1-4-1 tactical configuration with Luis Edison at the apex of an attacking diamond.

Joe Brincat, the Floriana mentor, was forced to make two changes from the team that won their last match against Birkirkara as midfielders Pablo Doffo and Clyde Borg were both serving suspension.

Mindful of Hibs’ flair upfront, the former Vittoriosa Stars coach thought of tackling the match with equal weaponry as he moved to bolster his attack with the inclusion of the more attack-minded Christian Caruana and striker Alandson.

In fact, Onome Sodje was positioned at the front of Floriana’s 4-2-3-1 formation ahead of the advanced trio of Caruana, Aland-son and Andre Grabowski.

But to all intents and purposes, the first 20 minutes passed away with little goalmouth action.

Soon after Clayton Failla tested waters with a pulverizing shot that ended high over the bar.

That proved to be the prelude of Hibernians’ opener which came less than four minutes later.

Cohen made inroads on the right flank with a typical driving run, before veering to the centre and unleashing a piledrive that flashed past Floriana goalkeeper Manuel Bartolo and went in off the inside of the post.

The Greens responded with a flowing three-man move which ended with Alandson’s rising shot that soared wide.

Sodje then headed the ball into the path of Grabowski who, with a clever, nimble turn set up the Brazilian but the latter’s shot rolled the wrong side of the far post.

Just before half-time, Floriana had a goal ruled out for offside when Sodje was adjudged to have slipped out of play from Woods’s cross.

The Nigerian rose unchallenged to head home from close range but was immediately flagged offside by the assistant referee.

Brincat rang the changes at half-time. Tyrone Farrugia replaced the timid Caruana.

With Farrugia detailed to provide extra cover to the defence, Woods returned to his old position after being utilised as a holding midfielder in a strikers-laden formation in the first half.

The match slipped into a lull in the opening stage after the interval with little in the way of action on goal.

However, on the hour mark, Bjorn Kristensen masterminded a flash of brilliance as he flicked the ball over an opponent’s head and served Edward Herrera but the latter’s grounder came to nothing.

Three minutes later, Edison exercised his neck muscles to reach a Cohen cross but arched a header just wide.

On the other side, ten minutes later, Woods, spotting Mario Muscat out of goal, tried a speculative lob from the distance but the ball finished over the Hibernians bar.

In the closing stages of the encounter, Hibernians mounted a lengthy raid on Floriana’s defence mainly thanks to substitute Marcelo Dias who showed some deft footwork to beat Manolito Micallef only to be dispossessed by an attentive Farrugia.

Hibernians
M. Muscat-6, J. Pearson-5, R. Camilleri-5, R. Soares-6, C. Failla-6, B. Kristensen-7.5, E. Herrera-5 (77 P. Anizoba Chizoba), A. Cohen-7.5, J. Vandelannoite-6.5, Jackson Lima-6, Luis Edison-5 (80 M. Dias).

Floriana
M. Bartolo-6, D. Pisani-5 (82 R. Darmanin), M. Micallef-5.5, E. Akoto-6, O. Bugeja-6, I. Woods-7, T. Paris-6.5, A. Grabowski-6.5 (86 J. Mintoff), O. Sodje-5, Alandson-5, C. Caruana-5 (46 T. Farrugia-6).

Referee: Andre Arciola.

Yellow cards: Woods, Edison, Paris, Pisani, Cohen, Bartolo, Farrugia.

BOV Player of the match: Andrew Cohen (Hibernians).