Johnville's Paul Cleary makes a determined effort to dispossess Hibs' David McGrath.
Hibernians 2; Johnville 0
■□■ View More Photos
Hibernians, who enjoyed a good 2009-10 league campaign, got this season off to an excellent start by defeating Johnville in Mitchell Kennedy Park on Wednesday night.
Their two goals came from set pieces, but nevertheless they fully deserved their victory against a Johnville team who tried hard but never really looked like getting anything from the game.
Hibs boss Lee Douglas has plenty of talent to work with, but his opposite number Mark Brown will have to get back to the drawing board with his team.
The game took a while to settle down and it took until the 18th minute for anything of note to happen. Joey Phelan got in a dangerous cross from the left but the Johnville defender John Kennedy cleared the danger with Tadgh Kirby ready to pounce for the home side.
Hibernians took the lead after 23 minutes and David McGrath had the honour of scoring the first goal of the new Premier League season. Paul Cleary fouled David O’Mahony needlessly out on the right flank. Dayne Ormonde took the free kick and his delivery to the near post was tucked home by McGrath with the visiting defence all at sea.
Five minutes after that Johnville went close when Kevin Barry set up Pat Brown who shot at goal from 18 yards. His effort was saved by Darragh Power and when the ball came back into the path of Gavin McLawrence he blazed high over the crossbar.
Substitute Ian Ryan sent in an angled strike from the left on 35 minutes but his shot went well wide of Darragh Power’s far upright. Shortly afterwards a long-range effort by Kevin Barry came back off an upright but following through Pat Brown shot well wide.
See The Munster Express newspaper for full story or subscribe to our PDF version.
