THERE are still another nine games to play and 27 points up for grabs for both Hibernian and Falkirk in the Ladbrokes Championship this season.
But surely Hibs, even with their well-known propensity to foul things up just when glory seems assured, can't squander their chance to win the second tier title and promotion back to the top flight from here.
This narrow 1-0 win over Dundee United at Tannadice, a result achieved courtesy of a first-half Jason Cummings strike, sent them nine points ahead of their nearest rivals at the top of the table and 10 ahead of their opponents. It is a commanding position to be in entering the run-in.
Ray McKinnon’s side still has a game in hand. But their failure to trouble the league leaders to any significant degree at home last night suggested, regardless of the fact that they played with 10 men for an hour, the play-offs may provide their best chance of securing a place back in the Premiership this term.
United certainly pushed hard for an equaliser in the closing stages following a moment of absolute madness by scorer Cummings – who deliberately handled the ball into the opposition net in the 76th minute despite having been cautioned just moments earlier – but they never looked like netting all evening.
Neil Lennon, the Hibs manager, was in a highly agitated state on the touchline all night and was sent off by referee Don Robertson in the closing stages after protesting a little bit too volubly about one of his decisions. But he was a very contented man after a richly-deserved and important win.
Lennon was in no position to reprimand his star player afterwards despite his foolish act. "Jason was stupid and he knows that," he said. "He's feeling remorseful, but he's won me the game.
"He has gallusness about him and he has to learn because he's let his mates down for the last ten or fifteen minutes while we were in complete control of the game.
"So he's got to learn and do it quickly, but he's a real player and has been precious to me all season.
I thought it was a goal at the time, but the referee got it right.
"When I got sent off it was for encroaching too many times. The technical areas aren't big enough for me. It's called emotion, pressure and it's called playing the game on the edge. I have no complaints about it."
Cummings and Lennon weren’t the only men to incur the match official’s wrath. There were no fewer than 11 yellow and two red cards shown during the course of an often niggly 90 minutes.
Around a couple of dozen United supporters in the Eddie Thompson Stand staged a protest in the tenth minute and called for chairman Stephen Thompson to leave. They held up banners and chanted “we want Thompson out”.
But their sentiments were clearly not shared by all of their fellow supporters as they were jeered and whistled by many of those around them. Perhaps holding the demonstration in such an important fixture against the league leaders wasn’t the best idea.
United were dealt a huge blow in the 32nd minute when Lewis Toshney was ordered off for a second bookable offence after a rash challenge on Andrew Shinnie.
Shinnie had a hand in the opening goal seven minutes later. He linked well with Grant Holt before supplying Cummings as his team mate advanced into the box.
The striker controlled the ball with his chest before rifling a left foot volley into the roof of the net. It was the 21-year-old’s 20th goal of the 2016/17 campaign and was one of the best.
Cummings looked as if he had secured the victory with his second goal in the 76th minute after turning a David Gray cross into the net. But Robertson correctly ruled the forward, whose name he had taken just three minutes earlier, had handled it and sent him off.
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