Pat Fenlon believes only way is up for Hibs

By DAVID HARDIE
Published on 18/02/2013 12:01

Hibs boss Pat Fenlon today urged his players to take confidence from their first league win of the year and use it to secure their place in the SPL’s top six.

Leigh Griffiths’ 17th goal of the season, a penalty, was enough to earn Hibs their third victory of the season over 
St Mirren – the hitman taking his personal tally against the Buddies to five – pushing the Easter Road club back into fourth place.

Despite now being only three points behind Motherwell in second spot, though, the win in Paisley was only Hibs’ third in the league since the end of November, victory against St Johnstone followed by defeats in three of their next four matches and then the joy of a memorable triumph over champions Celtic quickly disappeared as Fenlon’s side failed to win any of their next five games. Scottish Cup wins against Hearts and 
Aberdeen have helped mask that poor record to a certain extent as has the fact Hibs 
have remained in the upper reaches of the table. Now, though, Fenlon wants to see his players “kick on”, starting with Sunday’s visit to Dundee United.

While agreeing that the runners-up spot remains up for grabs not only for Hibs but a number of other teams, he said: “At this stage, the way the league is, we have to make sure we are in the top six. That’s 
vitally important for us.

“We are going in the right 
direction. We haven’t played well in the last five or six weeks but we put in a real decent performance against St Mirren and we have to build on that.

“The last time we won we beat Celtic and didn’t build on it but we have to make sure we kick on now. We said after the game we have to have confidence and belief in ourselves.

“We didn’t play well last

Monday and we know that.

We let ourselves down but

Saturday was completely

different.

“In fairness, games like the St Johnstone one haven’t happened too often for this group so you have to give them credit for bouncing back,”

Meanwhile, Hibs have confirmed that former marketing and communications director Colin McNeill has rejoined the Easter Road board in a

non-executive capacity.