'Quick-scoring Elding could be Hibs' Rooney'
[BBC] A 3-0 win on Saturday, coupled with Motherwell's defeat by Falkirk, has reopened the door for Hibs to chase down a fourth-place finish that looked out of reach just a couple of weeks ago. Owen Elding scored Hibs' first goal in just 13 seconds, but if the speed at which Hibs got on the scoresheet was impressive, it was overshadowed by the youngster's performance. Elding looks like a fantastic talent; he's just turned 20 and has benefited from playing men's football in Ireland from a young age.
He didn't look out of place at all facing the physical demands of a Scottish Premiership game and his style of play drew some loose comparisons with Wayne Rooney - nobody is saying he's at the level Rooney was at when he was 20, but Elding's style and natural ability to know where to be and what the next play is shows a footballing maturity well beyond his years. Having lost Keiron Bowie for £7. 5m in the January window, David Gray needed his recruitment team to plug the gap with an adequate replacement, and it looks like they did just that.
Along with Elding, the goal-scoring form of Ante Suto off the bench has given Gray an attacking threat in Bowie's absence. The game itself on Saturday showed Gray's learning on the job. When Killie last visited Easter Road, Hibs started with some of the best football we'd played in ages to take a two-goal lead, before a lapse in concentration let Killie back into the game, which ended in a 2-2 draw.
There were a lot of grumbles from the Hibs support as the game was, in all honesty, pretty brutal once Hibs went two up. The third goal helped lift some of the ire, but wins like this do little to win over Gray's doubters. I prefer to give him credit for ensuring the points stayed in Leith, this was progression, even if it wasn't pretty, and Gray extended an impressive home record in the process.
You can find Matty Fairnie at Longbangers podcast