HIBERNIAN missed out on the money-spinning Uefa Cup group stages after their talented youngsters learnt a painful lesson in Ukraine.

Derek Riordan cancelled out Sergiy Nazarenko’s early opener which would have been good enough to take the Edinburgh team beyond the first round of the Uefa Cup for the first time since 1989, after a goalless draw at Easter Road.

But Hibernian’s young defence went to sleep again just two minutes later as Bogdan Shershun pounced before Oleg Shelayev scored from the spot after a controversial decision from Fritz Stuchlik, the referee, to penalise Chris Hogg for a foul on Sergey Kornilenko.

Substitute Olexandr Melaschenko compounded the misery of gutsy Hibernian with a stunning late double as the Scots crashed out.

Tony Mowbray, the Hibernian manager, had the luxury of naming an unchanged team while Dnipro had one change from the first leg with Nazarenko back from suspension to replace Kostyantyn Kravchenko. But the Scots suffered the worst possible start when they fell behind within the first 30 seconds.

A Dnipro throw-in was headed out to Nazarenko and his mis-hit shot took a deflection to wrong-foot Zbigniew Malkowski, the goalkeeper, and ended up in the bottom corner of the net. Hibernian looked rattled but they came back with a shot from Riordan that was stopped by Artem Kusliy.

Yet Mowbray’s side came close to going even further behind in the fifth minute when Nazarenko played Denis Andrienko through but his shot was pushed out as Malkowski came to the rescue of his defenders and kept his team-mates in the game.

Riordan, however, had a chance to draw the sides level in the tenth minute when he beat the offside trap to run on to Steven Whittaker’s through-ball but Kusliy sprinted off his line and blocked his effort.

Hibernian deservedly hauled themselves back on level terms in the 24th minute when Riordan controlled Gary Caldwell’s long ball on his chest before hitting a shot into the ground and past Kusliy from a tight angle. But that lasted just two minutes as Dnipro moved back in front after more terrible defending by Hibernian.

They were all over the place as Malkowski pushed a header back into the danger area and Whittaker blocked a shot from Andrienko but the ball fell to Shershun and he scored from four yards.

Things got even worse for Hibernian in the 38th minute when the referee pointed to the spot after Kornilenko had gone down in the area too easily under the challenge of Hogg and Shelayev scored from the penalty.

Ivan Sproule did get the ball in the net only to find the linesman had his flag up for offside.

Mowbray made a change in the 66th minute with Steven Fletcher replacing Guillaume Beuzelin before Melaschenko came on for Kornilenko.

Riordan could have set up a grand finale but he fired past the post with nine minutes remaining.Moments later David Murphy sent a long-range effort past the angle before Kusliy saved Fletcher’s low strike. Melaschenko then rubbed salt into the Hibernian’s wounds with a right-foot strike from 20 yards.

In the time added on, Fletcher had a goal ruled out for offside before Melaschenko struck again with a goal that was even better than his first.

DNIPRO: Kusliy, Gritsay, Shelaev, Serhiy Kornilenko, Kotenko, Radchenko, Rusol, Semochko, Andrienko, Shershun, Nazarenko. Substitutes: Kernozenko, Lisitski, Mikhailenko, Balabanov, Matiukhin, Kravchenko, Melaschenko.

HIBERNIAN: Malkowski, Beuzelin, Caldwell, Murphy, O’Connor, Riordan, Sproule, Stewart, Hogg, Thomson, Whittaker. Substitutes: Si Brown, Fletcher, Glass, Konte, Morrow, Rudge, Shiels.

Referee: F Stuchlik (Austria).