Mark Brown hopes experience will be key to Hibs success

Goalkeeper Mark Brown is keen to make his experience count as Hibernian battle relegation from the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and bid for William Hill Scottish Cup success.

The 31-year-old helped Hibs advance to the first all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup final since 1896 after coming off the bench following a season-ending thigh injury to first-choice Graham Stack in the semi-final win against Aberdeen.

Now Brown, who is also poised to play at St Mirren on Sunday after making his first start since January in the loss to Kilmarnock, is determined to help Hibs enjoy a successful conclusion to the season.

The former Rangers and Celtic goalkeeper told Hibernian TV: “You have to use your experience coming into the games, especially the Hampden game. I’ve been training hard and putting in a lot of hours on the chance that if anything does happen you’re ready to go. But I think your form does get better when you get a run of games and between now and the final I’ll play as well as I can.”

Hibs sit six points above bottom club Dunfermline entering this weekend’s fixtures with four matches to play.

The Pars cut the gap by one point last weekend after drawing in Paisley and meet Aberdeen tomorrow, with Hibs taking on St Mirren 24 hours later.

Brown added: “The thing is not to panic too much. The result against Kilmarnock was disappointing. It was a game where we felt we could have taken something from it.

“But there were plenty of positives, so as a squad we have to take those positives into Sunday’s game and also work on improving our weaknesses.

“We know there were things that we could’ve done better and we’ll work hard this week on improving our performance and getting a result on Sunday.”