Hibs: Hughes admits he's spoilt for choice

Published on Thursday 9 September 2010 10:53

JOHN Hughes has put his latest signings Darryl Duffy, Francis Dickoh and Jonathan Grounds on stand-by for an Easter Road debut tomorrow as Hibs look to get back to winning ways against Inverness.

The arrival of the trio on transfer-deadline day has stiffened competition in Hughes' squad despite the loss of striker Anthony Stokes to Celtic. And, with Kevin McBride free from suspension and those who were on international duty returning fit and healthy, the Hibs boss admits he has brought a selection headache upon himself.

He said: "It's a nice position to be in, having a number of choices. We've done a lot of 11 v 11, different systems, giving everyone a wee shot in different positions and now it's a matter of sitting down and picking the team we think will give us the best chance of winning.

"One or two of the boys may feel a bit hard done by but it's what happens over the course of the season that counts."

Back-to-back defeats by Rangers and St Mirren, a peformance Hughes condemned as being unacceptable, have left Hibs with only three points from their opening matches and today the Easter Road manager warned his players they'll have to be at their best to overcome Caley, who won 4-0 at Dundee United in their last away game.

Hughes said: "Any team that goes to Tannadice and produces such a result has to be a good side and we'll be hammering that message home to the players. Caley not only have good players, but they roll their sleeves up and dig in, they've got a right good mixture."

Both McBride and fellow midfielder Liam Miller trained yesterday having overcome knocks which were threatening their participation tomorrow.