Hughes: Hibs are not yet pitch perfect

Published on Monday 30 November 2009 08:54

HIBS boss John Hughes today insisted the best was yet to come after watching his Easter Road side haul themselves to within two points of the top of the SPL table.

The Hibees made it nine league matches without defeat with a 2-0 home victory over Hughes' old club Falkirk, a result which pulled them level on points with champions Rangers and just two behind leaders Celtic.

While a double from top scorer Derek Riordan was enough to see off the Bairns, Hughes admitted that despite their impressive run of form his team aren't playing great football at the moment.

However, he believes that is down, in part, to opposition sides setting themselves up to be hard to beat as they see Hibs, thanks to their lofty position, as a scalp to take.

He said: "If you look at results throughout the SPL everyone is capable of beating each other so it is nice to pick up three points and move on. Winning football matches keeps you where you want to be and that is all credit to the players, I'm really pleased for them."

Despite growing opinion that this could be a season in which Celtic and Rangers could be separated, Hughes has repeatedly and consistently refused to become embroiled in such a debate, adamant his sole goal is to take each game at a time and see where it takes Hibs.

He said: "It's a work in progress, I still think we have a lot of work to do. I'd like to think there is still a lot more to come from this team. We are not playing great football at the moment, our ball retention is not great.

"We'd love to be going out there, playing expansive, free-flowing football and scoring five or six goals and at Easter Road especially we owe it to our fans to try to score goals.

"But we have teams coming here setting up to make themselves hard to beat. We are a scalp because of our league position so by hook or by crook you need to dig in there as we did on Saturday.

"I was a bit disappointed in the first half only to be one goal up. I felt we had some good chances to kill the game.

"We dropped it a bit in the second half but I didn't think Falkirk had too many chances other than one shot Yves Ma-Kalambay tipped over."

Although he believes much work has still to be done, Hughes revealed he also feels progress has been made over the past few months since he became manager.

He said: "The boys know the standards that have been laid down, I think it has become evident to everyone we are no soft touches. We work very hard and get stuck in.

"We've also got a good bench, guys like Paul Hanlon, Steven Thicot, Sean Welsh, Patrick Cregg, Lewis Stevenson and so on desperate to play and you see their training during the week demand that they get a game."

Hughes believes the stiff back which forced goalkeeper Graham Stack off at half-time and the shoulder injury sustained by Ian Murray won't prevent the pair being available for this weekend's visit by Motherwell.