Lazy cut and paste from Pie and Bovril:
Hughes rested a lot of normal first teamers and changed formation.
We went with a 4-1-4-1
Brill
Meekings Warren Devine Tremarco
Foran
Doran Polworth Williams Ross
Mckay
Polworth played slightly deeper compared to Williams who tried to get forward to support Mckay. Both Tremarco and Meekings offered very little support from the full back position which resulted in Ross and Doran being forced back inside into a very crowded midfield which is where most of the "action" seemed to take place. When the ball wasn't bobbling about in the middle of the pitch it was generally being thumped high into the air by both sides who, for a period in the second half, didn't complete a pass to a team mate for a good few minutes.
Whilst not unusual for 1) ICT or 2) a team managed by Terry Butcher from an ICT point of view it was bizarre to see all of these aimless long balls thumped up the pitch in the vague direction of Mckay, Doran and Ross when our best ball winner in the air, Foran, was held back patrolling just in front of the back four and was unable to offer any aerial support going forward except at set pieces. Hibs fans will be in a better place to confirm this but one of my Hibee supporting chums told me that under Hughes Hibs would have been as well playing without a midfield given the number of times the ball would be punted over their heads in the general direction of Riordan, Stokes etc.
Watmore for Hibs showed some flashes of skill as he dribbled past several ICT players on a number of occasions and was then being bundled over before he could create anything to threatening. Stanton was pretty quiet.
The best chances for ICT came when Doran popped up on the left and cut inside flashing a shot / cross into the box which just eluded Mckay before sailing wide. In the second half some neat passing play on the edge of the box played in Doran but Williams was out quickly to smother his shot.
The game was summed up on a number of occasions when Doran, McGivern and Forster all, on separate occasions, passed the ball straight out of play under little or no pressure. It really was an exceptionally bad game of football.