Boo me, not players, says John Hughes after fans vent anger at striker Nish

"I will say this to the supporters: lay off my players," the Hibs manager said yesterday. "If you want to boo someone, boo me. I'm big enough and ugly enough to take all that.

"To get booed off the park - aye, I can understand it if it was the result. But not for the effort and the commitment.

"I really felt for big Nishy when we took him off and the treatment he got from the supporters. My heart went out to him."

The pressure is beginning to mount on Hughes and his players after an opening sequence of five league games which has yielded one win and two draws, and tomorrow night's Co-operative Insurance Cup match at Kilmarnock could come as a little light relief after their struggles in the SPL. The manager is still capable of throwing in some light relief of his own, however, as he proved when going on to talk about how he has tried to keep Nish's morale up.

"I purposely made sure I got close to him this morning to gauge his mind set and he was all right. I don't know if it's a front he's putting on, but he's okay.

"I tried to say to him through my own experience, turn it on its head. Use it as a tool to prove people wrong, that you come here and score goals. I said to him if you can give me what you gave me last year with a return of 12 goals I'll be delighted.

"I did throw a wee bit in that when I turned around and looked at one or two of them giving him stick, I was little bit surprised to see his old man up there as one of them. There was a wee bit of humour in there as well. It's not right: you need to get behind the boys and you need to support them.

"I think every club has a whipping boy or a boo boy, and unfortunately it seems to be big Nishy. The players are right behind him, he is a good lad, a good finisher and any striker that's giving you a return of 12 goals, if he can do that this year, great.

"I was a boo boy and I used that. I was the boo boy at Falkirk when I first went there - I came as a centre-forward, so no wonder they booed me. I dug deep and I used it as a test of my resolve, and I just hope big Nishy can go and do that."

Hughes suggested after the 1-1 draw with Hamilton that his team maybe thought they were better than they were, and explained yesterday that he meant they had to be prepared to work hard for wins rather than thinking they would come merely by virtue of their ability. "We need to go out with a mentality of anything that we get, we're prepared to put the shift in, we have to play like an underdog.I just feel we're going out with a mentality that something will happen: we have to go out there and make it happen. The other thing is that if you know your football, you look at what you've got. We've not got Wayne Rooney or (Dimitar] Berbatov. We've got what we've got and you need to get behind them.

"I understand the frustrations of the supporters, but it's not doing anyone any good. We need to get behind the boys, but I don't think it's doom and gloom, I don't think it's far away.

"We all take the plaudits when it's going great, but I'm saying to the supporters give them a chance, go and support them. It's unfortunate we've not got off to a great start, but it's not disastrous."

Hughes also clarified another comment from Saturday, when he said supporters' expectations were possibly too high. They were entitled to expect high-place finishes in the league, he said, but needed to give him more time to rebuild the squad before demanding such success.

"This club should be playing in Europe every year, and trying to win a cup and always trying to split the Old Firm. I don't think you can do that in two years.

"I think you need time to shuffle your pack. It takes time to build your own team and get it right.

"Even last year, when we were winning football matches, I said it's a work in progress."