Derek Riordan says poor pitches cost him his place and led to Hibs dropping valuable points

As surfaces the length and breadth of the country deteriorate, including their own, amid a prolonged period of adverse weather conditions, the Easter Road club have been forced to ditch their expansive style in favour of a more direct approach.

Twelve-goal Riordan even found himself relegated to the substitutes bench last month after John Hughes confessed the Scotland cap's game was not suited to Motherwell's notoriously dire turf.

At the same time, Hibs have lost their momentum in pursuit of a third-place finish, slipping to fourth behind Dundee United on the back of a five game winless run that includes a 5-1 reverse at St Johnstone.

Riordan, who is set to play against Kilmarnock tomorrow in the club's first game since the demolition of the East Stand began, blames the pitches for costing Hibs points as they are easily 'bullied' when they adopt a long-ball game.

He said: "I think you've got to blame the pitch, I think if we play on a good decent pitch we would give anyone a game but I think the pitches are letting us down recently.

"I can understand why I was dropped at Motherwell too. When you look at Motherwell's pitch and see how bad it is, ours is bad as is Aberdeen's so that's three bad surfaces and it doesn't suit our style of play because we are not a big physical side. We have been bullied quite a lot recently.

"We have got to adapt, big Nishy (Colin Nish] has come in and he holds the ball up well for us, that's where we have been getting away with it.

"I think if you look at our team, I'm one of the tall ones and I'm not the biggest. You have (John] Rankin, (Liam] Miller, wee Lewis (Stevenson], Partick Cregg, (Merouane] Zemmama, (Anthony] Stokes, even (David] Wotherspoon, (Ian] Murray and Chris Hogg, they are not the tallest of players.

"If you look at our team you see how small we are, if we are on a good pitch I think that's when we are at our best."

Hibs were held to a 1-1 draw by St Johnstone last Saturday despite having chances to put the result beyond doubt and Riordan offers a simple reason for their profligate finishing.

He added: "I think the pitch has cost us points, if you look at the chances on Saturday, I think the ball got stuck under our feet because it's like a bog, it's horrible. You have to take an extra touch instead of your natural reaction of knowing what you are going to do. You have to wait until the ball settles until you hit it – the pitch is really bad and it's as bad as I've seen in years."

Riordan also insists he can be as prolific as Wayne Rooney if Hughes restores him to a central striking role.

The summer signing of Anthony Stokes has seen Riordan moved out to an inside left position, similar to that occupied by Rooney at Manchester United last season.

The sale of Cristiano Ronaldo saw Rooney once again become the focal point of United's attack and the England striker has since responded with the best goalscoring form of his career.

Asked if he could emulate Rooney's feats, Riordan said: "Definitely. I think if you play up front, you're definitely going to get at least two chances a game.

"You've just got to take those chances. Every season I've played, I think I've hit basically 20 goals a season. If you get a full run at it, I think every striker should be roughly up at 20 goals a season."

Riordan, 27, believes he has done well to get into double figures so far.

"I've had to adapt and I have to defend a lot more now," he said. "But I've still scored 12 goals this season so it's okay. It's quite good for left-midfield.

"I always want to score 20 goals a season if I'm playing a very attacking role. I've still got another 12-13 games this season, so as long as I'm fresh, I'll get quite a high number of goals."

Hibs' recent loss of form has coincided with a barren spell in front of goal for Riordan. His four-match scoreless run could not have come at a worse time, with the forward omitted from the Scotland squad for Wednesday's friendly win over the Czech Republic at Hampden.

"You want to be part of your national squad obviously, but you've got to keep playing well," said Riordan, who has failed to sufficiently impress new national team manager Craig Levein. "Every manager's different. I just want to focus on playing well and scoring goals and trying to get back in there."