HIBERNIAN 1 ABERDEEN 1: Boyle equaliser buys time for troubled Leith club … but apathy is the clear and present danger at Easter Road

There was plenty to cause a certain disquiet within the directors’ box during this one. The clear number of empty seats inside the ground, the often funereal atmosphere during the first half and, of course, the chants for Hibs sporting director Malky Mackay to Get To France during that opening period.

With the home team booed off the field at the interval, a goal down to a lovely effort from former Easter Road man Kevin Nisbet, it had the makings of a rather fractious afternoon down Leith way.

By the end of it, though, there was enough to suggest things maybe aren’t quite as bad as they seem at the end of a week which saw former boss – and club legend, in case you hadn’t been told – David Gray kicked out on his Erchie after a grim run of results and performances.

Talking to folk around the ground yesterday, there was little argument over Gray being given his marching orders. The view, though, is that he isn’t the only one to blame for the predicament Hibs are in – hence the songs directed towards the aforementioned sporting director and the ‘Mackay Out Now’ banner flown along with them.

The old Cabbage and Ribs need something sexy to happen during the international break. 

They need a manager brought in who can capture the imagination of a fanbase appearing to slide into apathy more than anger and set a new direction of travel with encouragement from the board that wider cost-cutting need not mean a natural reduction in ambition.

Put simply, they need to excite their fans the way city rivals Hearts have. 

On the basis of this, though, there is something within the squad for the new boss to work with when he moves into position.

Given everything going on around the club, it would have been easy for the players to go into their shells when things weren’t going well. 

There is an evident shortage of confidence within the group and what feels like a troublesome lack of impetus around the entire organisation.

Yet, they rallied. They dug in. They enjoyed easily the better of the second period and they might very well have won this 13 minutes from the end.

Following a spell of pressure that had seen Josh Mulligan and Owen Elding pass up chances, visiting centre-back Jack Milne gave them a route back into the game on 62 minutes when putting both hands on Jason Kerr as a ball entered the area from a corner routine on the right and conceding a penalty.

Referee Nick Walsh gave it straight away. It was a stonewaller and a stupid, needless mistake which no doubt contributed to Milne being removed from the play shortly afterwards by manager Stephen Robinson.

Martin Boyle stepped up to smash the spot-kick straight down the middle with that big chance at snatching the points falling to the captain’s replacement Ante Suto.

Fellow substitute Nathan Lowe had won a free-kick on the left and dusted himself off to fire in a terrific delivery towards the back post. Suto climbed high and got himself on the end of it, but the ball glanced off his head and went wide from just a matter of yards out.

The reality is that everyone inside Hibs, including the punters, will welcome the international break. The whole place needs time to regroup and figure out where it is going in the wake of a period in which it has very much felt on the drift. This point gives them a bit of breathing space.

For Aberdeen, it is likely to annoy Robinson over the time away from competitive action. Up to the hour-mark, they had easily been the better team and might well have had the game in their pocket against a home side that had lost midfielder Jamie McGrath through injury in the warm-up.

Yet, Milne’s mistake at the penalty proved costly. In the latter stages of the match, the sense of danger and possibility that had marked their first-half play had disappeared.

The game just fizzled out for them after starting particularly well and just killed a bit of the momentum that had built up midweek with a thumping win at Motherwell. The opening goal was certainly a pearler from Nisbet.

Gavin Molloy moved onto the ball up the left and put a low ball into the area. It would be harsh to term it a sclaff, but it’s fair to say it was delivered without the cleanest of contact.

No matter, Nisbet collected it on the edge of the area, took a touch, turned to square himself up and face the target – and then released a super right-footed effort that beat goalkeeper Raphael Sallinger to his right.

From that point, it felt like the game was there for the taking for the visitors and they really should have doubled their advantage before the hour.

Nisbet had done really well to play the ball out to Ronan on the right and move into space inside the area in anticipation of the return. It duly came and it looked sure the one-time Scotland striker would snare his second goal of the day.

Perhaps the ball just bounced a little unkindly for him, but Nisbet miskicked an effort from in front of the sticks and the danger passed.

Being honest, Aberdeen had plenty of opportunities to kill this one stone dead before Hibs rallied in the second period. On 47 minutes, visiting striker Toyosi Olusanya sprang the home defence to move onto the ball up the right, but sent his effort wide of the far post.

Moments later, he had put the ball in the net. On this occasion, though, there was absolutely no question linesman Frank Connor was spot-on in raising his flag for offside.

That’s where it all went a bit awry for the Dons, though. The chances dried up. Hibs started pushing. 

Milne put a header straight at Sallinger with the scoreline 1-1 and it all started to feel like it just wasn’t going to be their day, after all.

This was certainly a bigger point for Hibs than the Dons. It was an afternoon that also put Mackay on a very definite warning. He’d better come up with a manager capable of getting Easter Road going again or he’s right in the crosshairs.