A dominating Motherwell performance resulted in nothing as Hibernian ran out 3-1 winners at Easter Road.
Liam Polworth’s opener had the visitors ahead early doors, but they were pegged back in the first half after defensive lapses set up Christian Doidge and Florian Kamberi to put Hibs 2-1 up.
Stephen Robinson’s men controlled the vast majority of the second half but couldn’t convert their dominance into scoring chances, before they were caught cold late on via Daryl Horgan’s counter attack goal.
A return to a more familiar shape saw Bevis Mugabi and Richard Tait drop out of the team which lost at Celtic last time out, with Peter Hartley and Jermaine Hylton coming in.
Hylton would cause all the problems for the Hibs defence which led to the opener. A bursting run down the left saw him in the area, before his cross found Polworth, via deflections and the post, for the midfielder to steer in the opener with nine minutes played.
But they would come unstuck midway through the first half. Joe Newell ghosted in behind the defence on the left hand side and picked out Doidge at the back post to equalise.
Minutes later, it was two. Jason Naismith was left unattended to down the right, having time to pick out Kamberi in the middle. The striker still had work to do, holding off defenders before slamming the ball home.
Motherwell came out for the second half determined to get back on level terms early on in horrendous wet conditions in the capital.
Their opportunity arguably should have come midway through the half. Polworth’s surge into the box was ended by a tug of the shirt from Porteous. But referee John Beaton waved away his appeals for a spot kick.
Wave after wave of Motherwell attacks followed, but scoring chances were at a premium as the final ball just wouldn’t come.
Then, with four attackers leading the line in a late push to salvage something from the game, a swift counter led to substitute Horgan sweeping the ball into the bottom corner of the net to make it a comfortable-looking result for Hibernian.