HIBERNIAN stretched their unbeaten run to eight matches with some outstanding attacking play to maintain their hopes of eating into Rangers’ considerable advantage at the top of the Championship.
They won comfortably with goals from Dominique Malonga, Liam Fontaine, Jason Cummings and James Keatings which augurs well for a stretch of matches which includes the visit of Rangers at the end of this month.
However, their manager, Alan Stubbs, was perplexed by the loss of two goals having conceded just one in the previous seven matches.
The quality of Malonga’s finish that gave Hibernian the lead in 21 minutes was quite breathtaking as he completely fooled the Dumbarton goalkeeper, Mark Brown, with a ferocious shot from the left corner of the box which ripped into the top right corner of the net.
However, the shambolic nature of defending barely a minute later which resulted in Dumbarton finding an unlikely levelling goal was equally jaw-dropping.
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Captain David Gray headed the ball straight to Grant Gallagher when attempting to clear Jordan Kirkpatrick’s cross and then Mark Oxley did not cover himself in glory as he tried to save Gallagher’s resulting shot with his legs and the ball squirmed in at the right post.
Both Hibernian men were no doubt relieved when Liam Fontaine restored the lead in 26 minutes and then relaxed when a third goal came just before half-time.
Dumbarton simply could not deal with the physical presence of Fontaine as he rose impressively to head past Brown from six yards after John McGinn had driven a free kick in from the right side.
Cummings came close to scoring in 38 minutes when his clever chip was hooked off the line.
However, he was on target five minutes later when, having been clumsily brought down by Frazer Wright, he calmly found the left corner from the penalty spot.
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Cummings was the creator 15 minutes into the second half with a perfectly weighted pass in the inside left channel for James Keatings who eased the pain of an injury-struck season by slotting a left-foot shot past Brown.
The visitors, however, deserve great credit for not capitulating in such circumstances and produced a second goal 16 minutes from time when Steven Craig headed past Oxley from Mark Docherty’s free kick.
Alan Stubbs said: “The four goals we scored really excited me, there were some really good bits of play.
“We were clever going forward but I don’t expect to give two goals away.”
Star man: Liam Henderson (Hibs)
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Hibernian: Oxley 6, Gray 6, McGregor 6, Fontaine 7, Stevenson 7; McGinn 7, Fyvie 7 (McGeouch 67min, 6), Henderson 8, Keatings 7 (Bartley 65min, 6) Malonga 7, Cummings 7 (Feruz 71min, 6)
Dumbarton: Brown 6, Saunders 6, Buchanan 5, Barr 6, Wright 5 (Docherty 64min, 4), Kirkpatrick 6 (Craig 71min, 6), Longridge 5, Brown 5, Gibson 6 (Ross 71min, 4) Gallagher 6, Fleming 6