Colin Calderwood turns thoughts to next season

HIBERNIAN manager Colin Calderwood has urged his players to give supporters hope that next season will be more successful after they were condemned to a bottom-six finish for the first time in seven seasons.

Wednesday's disappointing 3-1 loss at Celtic dashed faint hopes of the Easter Road side catching Motherwell in the upper tier and setting up a fourth Edinburgh derby of the campaign. A seven-game unbeaten run, which included a sequence of five straight wins, prior to the trip to Parkhead had propelled Hibs into a position to consider finishing in the top half but a desperate first six months of the season had, in reality, left them with too much to do.

Calderwood has warned his team he will have next season in mind when he assess their performance during the remainder of the season. He said: "We have to produce something that will give you hope and people a position in the team for the beginning of next season. They're better than what we saw in the first half against Celtic and that's the thing that's grating at everybody.

"There's not too many times people are going to stick their hands up and say 'I was second best, I was rubbish, I was way off'.

"I don't want excuses, but honesty. It's our job as staff to analyse, debrief and make sure when they come in to these moments again that they deal with them better. It's a public examination, you have to be at it every week."

Calderwood will assess Derek Riordan in training ahead of tomorrow's trip to Aberdeen after the striker was forced off after 51 minutes in Glasgow with a thigh problem. Calderwood added: "He was feeling his thigh at half-time and we were always going to have to take him off but hopefully it hasn't harmed it by being on the pitch for longer."

lAnnan Athletic's record-breaking month of March - during which they racked up five straight wins - was recognised yesterday when Galabank manager Harry Cairney was named the Irn-Bru Phenomenal manager of the month in the Third Division.