16 fit vikings in excellent mood, some still effected by fridays night endeavours at boat and clarke quay met up and were looking forward to another clash with hibs who we had grabbed 3 points against earlier in the season. And the Vikings who had given likes of Marco, Buck and Dyne a chance from the kick off started brightly with Buck and Elbo controlling the midfield well, while Just did well to stay close to Bastian, and as we started to produce chances it was all looking good.

Soren should have converted 1 of 2 big chances in first half, and in general sharpness was the issue of this weeks game, thus irony takes centre stage at this weeks Viking report.  Just a week ago I were writting a match report praising our strikers for being some the most effecient in the league, just to see them miss 6-7 100% chances between them over 120 minutes of play, and if you add on good scoring chances for our midfielders it was just one of those day.

A noticable incident midway through first half saw our dear Chairman of the disciplinary commitee take down our striker at the edge of the box with only the keeper left to beat, and when only a yellow card was produced smiles/shakes off heads dominated the following minutes untill Chris came close on the following freekick.

At the start of 2nd half it was Casper (creating a big chance for himself), Chris and Rasmus that were not sharp enough, and while Naoki failed to finish off a fantastic 70metre solo run, it started to seem impossible to find the back of the net, and as Hibs scored direct from a freekick from the far left (our defense and goalie are still discussing) - we were suddenly forced to having to do the impossible.

One of the best finishe came from substitute Peter Lund off a freekick, but the bar denied him the equalizer. But with 10 minutes to go, Peter DT found himself with the ball and a bit of space in the right side of the Hibs penalty box -  and finished off with a really nice kick to make it 1-1. In the last seconds of the match the linesman decided to (wrongfully) raise his flag denying Rasmus a 1-on-1 with the Hibs goalie, and while its doubtfull if he would have scored on the day, it was with great frustration we re-grouped for extra time.

While Vikings were dominating, the Hibs continued to look dangerous on counter attacks and their target man (Bastian) did what he could to provide chances for the unrushing midfielders and as they converted one of those to make it 2-1, it was now again for us to create chances. With some 6 goal attempts within 10 seconds inside the Hibs box we came very close - but excellent goal keeping and heroic defending gave Hibs a well fought win.

We wish you all the best in the weeks to come and in the cup tournament. For the Vikings we now have to focus on next weeks clash against Lions, and welcome back Tommie from his 3 weeks match ban.

Man of the match went to Martin Just who did well defensively on the day.

brgds, Rafa

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