Motherwell
kick off the league campaign with a trip to Easter Road on Sunday.
Both sides
took part in the Uefa Conference League Q2 round on Thursday and both had
encouraging results. Motherwell had a
5-0 aggregate win over HB Torshavn while Hibs overcame a 2-0 deficit to lift
their home support with a 4-1 win over Malisheva.
As neither
team had the match practice afforded by the group stages of the League Cup we
have to base thoughts on Sunday’s game on those Uefa ties.
Under the
guidance of Alfred Johansson the much changed Steelmen seem set on sticking to
the methodology that served so well last season. A calm and controlled positive passing game
produced two wins with clean sheets and all without a recognised striker.
Tawanda
Maswanhise, the top scorer in the top flight last campaign, got his first
minutes of action on Thursday. He wore a
protective mask as he recovers from a jaw injury. He will likely come off the bench again on
Sunday.
Lukas Fadinger
and Regan Charles-Cook were the familiar players on the Euro score sheet and
they were joined by new boys Martin Moorman and Dylan Williams. There have been six additions to the squad,
the latest joined earlier this week, Alex Lowry.
Hibs will
be boosted by Thursday’s recovery.
Sentiment in Leith was not positive following the first leg defeat in
Kosovo. Martin Boyle, Nathan Lowe, Felix Passlack and Owen Elding scored the
second leg goals.
Jamie
McGrath and Nicky Cadden are unavailable and Chris Cadden had just moved to
Aberdeen. We can expect David Gray to field
an eleven close Thursday’s selection.
The teams
finished last season in adjacent places and that suggests there may be little between
them. The summer merry-go-round is still
spinning and until it stops uncertainty reigns.
Let’s go with a 1-1 draw.
