Penalty hero is no Yves dropper

Sep 2 2007 GORDON WADDELL at Easter Road

HIBS 1

INVERNESS CT 0

YVES MA-KALAMBAY shed last week's Ma-Calamity tag in style with the heroic penalty save that sent Hibs into second spot in the SPL.

Steven Fletcher's second-minute penalty was enough to stretch the Easter Road side's unbeaten run to five games and leave Inverness pointless at the bottom.

But it would - and should - have been a different story if Marius Niculae had converted from the spot at the other end in the first half.

But Belgian keeper Ma-Kalambay bounced back from last week's double blunder against Aberdeen to defy the Romanian.

And despite being a long way from firing on all cylinders it was the spark Hibs needed to grind out the points.

Boss John Collins said: "Yves was the hero today after all the stick he took last week.

"He dealt with everything well and kept a clean sheet. Keepers thrive on confidence builders like that penalty save."

Midfielder Brian Kerr added: "He'll be sleeping better this week. It really got to him last Saturday.

"He's had a tough time but remember he's only 21 which is still a baby in goalkeeping terms. We'll see the real Yves from now on."

We've still to see the real Hibs, though.

They were a long way short of their flowing best here so it says a lot that they managed to escape with three points against an Inverness side who deserved something from the game.

But their card was marked within 85 seconds when David Murphy's header reared up off Stuart McCaffrey's hand.

It didn't look as if there was much intent but ref Eddie Smith never even paused for breath before giving it.

Fletcher's cool stroke into the bottom corner was his fourth goal in five games. All that was inside the first two minutes - but most of the rest of the half belonged to Inverness.

Some of their one-touch stuff was great with one eight-pass break in particular a thing of beauty, only spoiled by player-boss Craig Brewster's volleyed finish flying wide.

His partnership with Romanian Niculae doesn't look like a long-term answer though - the little dinks and flicks between them were sweet but they're too similar in pace and instinct.

You could sense Hibs' fear of Brewster after last week's double for the Dons though.

And the 40-year-old looked like he had his side back in the game eight minutes from the break, backing into Rob Jones in the box and falling over the stopper's outstretched leg to earn a penalty.

It looked as soft as the first one and it was matched by Niculae's effort from the spot.

Ma-Kalambay dived to his left but it was his trailing right foot that made the crucial stop.

Hibs couldn't find a flow at all with only the excellent Fletcher keeping them ticking up front.

He was unlucky not to have any takers for a great ball across the six-yard box and he had another effort parried away just after the break.

He was then denied a second as Michael Fraser sprawled at his feet to claw the ball away inside the six yard box.

But neither keeper was troubled much in the second half. Kerr had one decent effort flash wide across Fraser from the right and at the other end Don Cowie, Russell Duncan and Brewster all came close from distance.

Kerr shrugged: "This is maybe the difference for us from last season when Hibs had a reputation of playing well and not putting the results together. This time we're doing the opposite.

"But we've now got two clear weeks to work on it and hopefully we can start putting together the patches of good play into longer spells."

REF WATCH

EDDIE SMITH had a decent enough game but he managed to have both sets of fans and players up in arms with two soft penalty awards. Nothing if not even-handed. Rating: 6/10

MATCH STATS

HIBS v INVERNESS CT

3 SHOTS ON 5

6 SHOTS OFF 10

4 OFFSIDE 1

9 FOULS 13

3 CORNERS 9

1 BOOKINGS 2