Booth and Moyes enjoying their double act at high-flying Brechin

Life may be a bit of a struggle for everyone at Easter Road at the moment, but Hibs kids Ewan Moyes and Callum Booth are flying high at the top of the Second Division with Brechin City.

• SHOULDER TO LEAN ON: Ewan Moyes, left, and Callum Booth have performed well at Brechin. Picture: JULIE BULL

The youngsters headed for Glebe Park on loan at the start of the season and now find themselves involved in a nail-biting fight for the title with Jim Weir's side just managing to hold onto top place ahead of Livingston thanks to goal difference.

But while the pair are lapping up the experience they are gaining, the benefit for Hibs in the longer term could be significant, as Moyes and Booth continue to build the partnership they've enjoyed since helping the Easter Road club's under-19 side win that memorable League and Cup double.

As a left-sided central defender, Moyes has Booth outside him, the pair now boasting almost 70 first team games beside each other having also spent the second half of last season on loan at Arbroath, while Moyes has further experience of a spell with Livingston.

And those are matches the duo believe they'd never have played had they remained with Hibs, where they'd probably have been restricted to weekly bounce games rather than coping with the pressure of maintaining pole position in a title race.

Nineteen-year-old Booth said: "Ewan and I have played pretty much every minute of every game so far, so things are going well. Of course, it is still early doors, but being top of the league gives you the confidence to keep battling away, to grind out the results.

"We've already had a bit experience of that sort of thing with the under-19s the other season when we had the pressure of being top and knowing every time we went out the other side were desperate to beat you. But it's a bit different this time, three o'clock on a Saturday, bigger crowds and guys playing for their win bonus as well as the points so it's a great learning curve for us."

Ironically, Brechin's only defeat so far was to Livingston, Moyes claiming their consolation goal as they went down 3-1, but so far it's been the Angus club which has enjoyed the upper hand in the neck-and-neck tussle.

Ahead of today's clash on third-placed Alloa Athletic's plastic pitch, 20-year-old Moyes, said: "There's a really good edge to it, coming off every week and immediately looking for the Livingston result.

"It's great to be top and it's wonderful to have that winning feeling.Callum and I have been team-mates together since (the] under-19s so we are continuing to develop our partnership on the left side of defence as we've each played between 30 and 40 games now."

The success of the youngsters - two of five to have been farmed out on loan for the first half of the season - has naturally led to some fans questioning the wisdom of letting them play elsewhere at a time when Hibs are enduring a sticky patch of form, so much so former boss John Hughes left to be replaced by Colin Calderwood.

But Booth and Moyes are the first to admit that with the likes of Chris Hogg, Ian Murray, Sol Bamba, Francis Dickoh and Paul Hanlon ahead of them at Easter Road, their chances of enjoying first team football would have been remote.

Booth, who scored in the 3-1 win over Alloa earlier in the season, said: "I think we'd probably have found ourselves confined to training and those Tuesday afternoon bounce matches at the training centre. Both of us needed to get first team games under our belts, having to impress Jim Weir to keep our places each week."

It is, of course, Calderwood that the youngsters will ultimately have to impress, well aware he'll be kept abreast of their development, although neither has had the chance to have a prolonged chat with their new boss so far.

Moyes said: "He's been concentrating on the first team, which is his immediate priority, but I am sure when things settle down we'll get the chance to hear what he has to say.

"We know there's lots of competition for places at Easter Road at the moment so it is up to us to keep working hard, to play as well as we can for Brechin and make sure we are ready to take the next step when it comes along."

Although both Booth and Moyes are due to return to Hibs in January, Booth revealed Weir has already spoken of trying to extend their loan deals into the second half of the season but much will depend on Calderwood's attitude when he comes to consider not only their future, but that of the others who are playing elsewhere, Kurtis Byrne (East Fife), Thomas Flynn (Alloa) and Scott Taggart (Ayr United).

Booth said: "We'll have to wait and see what happens, what the new manager has to say but obviously the hope is that when we come back to Hibs we'll have impressed sufficiently to get the chance to push on."