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Hachioji Park, Sat 16th Dec. The Jets were well up for this game with the opportunity to progress in the cup clearly a prize worth getting stuck in for. They had a fit and physical squad who did not give an inch and worked their socks off all game. The Hibs have played probably 5 or 6 games at Hachioji and we had yet to put in a performance that we were happy with. I think the slower pace of the grass compared to St Mary’s sees us under hit a lot of passes and get caught waiting for the ball to come to us instead of attacking it more.
This match was no exception as the Jets enjoyed the best of the early exchanges. We lost influential Hibs-man Ike with a suspected anterior cruciate ligament only 5 minutes in. It was sustained in an innocuous challenge and we hope he gets back on the field as soon as possible. The Jets had two breakaways when defenders lost the ball in dangerous positions and only desperate defending and poor finishing saw them fail to go ahead.
The Jets played the off-side trap aggressively throughout the game, pressing up close to the half way line every time the Hibs had possession in our own half. This served to condense the game and to make it somewhat of a less than attractive spectacle as an offside trap aided by a officiating linesman wearing one of your shirts is a tough combination to break through. Despite this the Hibs began to dominate and went ahead before half time thanks to a great strike from TML leading goal-scorer Tomo. A corner was headed out to Yasu, who threaded in a nice pass to Jay who dished it to Tomo, who did the rest from 20yards. A great save by the Jets keeper denied Yama, and Josh had a chipped penalty saved by the keeper who just stood there and said thank you.
The second half continued along similar lines but the Jets began to sit back as the Hibs pressed on in search of a second. Opposition defenders will be glad to know that Yohei was playing his last game for the Hibs for some time as he was re-locating to Manila, and he put in a fine performance for his swansong, running his heart out down the left and beating his man time and time again. A contentious moment occurred in the last minute when a long Jets free kick from the back kept rising on Steve and he could only head it backwards. It fell right into the path of the Jets attacker who nudged it past Hitoshi before colliding with him. Ref Hiro waved away the penalty claims and the game was over soon after. As Arsene Wenger would say I didn’t see the incident but it would have been hard on the Hibs to have conceded a penalty after the Jets defenders penchant for blocking shots in the box with hands directed at the ball saw us have half a dozen PK claims of our own denied through the game.
All in all I thought it was a fair result but a tough day at the office. We couldn’t seem to get our Mojo, and the Jets played some good football.
Have a great Christmas and New Year break. We wish all the best to Yohei, Josh and Steve, on their futures abroad. Thank you for your service; you will be missed by the Hibs.
Report by Bevan Colless.
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