Cowdenbeath bowed out of the Scottish Cup with their heads held high at Central Park on Saturday after a performance which shook their Premier League opponents and came within an ace of forcing what would have been a deserved replay at Easter Road.
The five-goal thriller got off to a stunning start with the Fifers slicing through the Hibs defence to score one of the fastest goals of the season in just 16 seconds.
Hibs clawed their way back to establish a 2-1 interval lead and then seemed to put the game to bed with a third goal 10 minutes after the break.
But the Blue Brazil had other ideas as they demonstrated the qualities which have taken them to the top of the Second Division.
They dominated the final 30 minutes, pulling a goal back with a brilliant strike from captain Jon Robertson to bring them right back into the game, but then missed a number of excellent chances to notch an equaliser.
It was a remarkable finale from Colin Cameron’s men after all a part-time team are expected to fold in the closing stages against full-time, more experienced opposition.
Not surprisingly, Cowden’s player-boss saluted the efforts of his players at the end of a stirring 90 minutes.
Cameron said: ”The lads went out and produced as good a performance as I could have hoped for. I am proud of every one of them. We did not lie down when it went to 3-1 and there was great disappointment at the end that we did not get a third goal to force a replay.
”I had told the players that we wanted to get in their faces right from the start and try to get an early goal but I did not think it would come as quickly as that. It gave us a real boost to our confidence and we had a good opening phase.
”Then, after Hibs fought back to go 3-1 up, all of a sudden we seemed to regain our belief, pushing forward and scoring a great goal. In the closing stages it was all about us but we lacked a bit of quality that was needed in the box to convert some really good chances.”
For Hibs, struggling badly in the Premier League, this narrow victory will have at least provided some relief after a disastrous run of 10 games without a win. But they will be left to ponder that they could not shake off a determined Second Division outfit.
Their recently appointed manager Pat Fenlon chose, however, to concentrate on the positives.
”We had to defend well in the closing stages but it was good to see the way we worked hard to get ourselves into the next round because, at the end of the day, that was the key element.”
The match got a sensational opening when Greg Stewart showed considerable composure as he went past Sean O’Hanlon to fire a left-foot shot from 14 yards low into the net.
But Hibs responded well with Leigh Griffiths shooting narrowly wide before settling his side with a spectacular strike from 30 yards to bring the scores level in the 17th minute.
Then in 27 minutes Doyle gave Hibs the lead when he worked his way into the home box, unleashing a fierce right-foot shot which Flynn partially blocked only to see the Hibs man get to the rebound first to net from close range.
David Wotherspoon made it 3-1 with a fine diving header from a Danny Galbraith cross.
But to their credit the Fifers refused to throw in the towel and they launched attack after attack all to no avail.
Skipper Robertson said: ”I scored with the hard chance but was very disappointed with one I missed. But the response from our boys after we had gone 3-1 down was brilliant.”