Why Hibs will be unhappy their match against Ross County was postponed

There must have been a degree of disappointment in the Hibs ranks when news came through that their trip to Dingwall had been postponed due to a frozen pitch.

Darren McGregor has shown his leadership qualities as Hibs pieced together three consecutive wins in the past couple of weeks. Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group

For a team in hot form, the sub-zero temperatures are an inconvenience as they look to maintain the momentum that has shifted them into third place.

But the five-point cushion plumped up by their victory over Aberdeen last weekend, will soften the blow, preventing them from being usurped, regardless of results elsewhere this weekend, a fact not lost on the Easter Road players and staff.

“I think we are in a really good place,” said Darren McGregor, who has played a key role in ensuring fortunes quickly swung in their favour in their wake of their early January malaise and then the Betfred Cup disappointment. But he says there is an awareness of just how easy it would be for negativity to creep back in if they let standards slip again.

“I think as football players you are always conscious of that. You are only ever a couple of bad games away from it being the complete opposite of being in a good place. You understand that. But off the back of three positive results, I feel we are in a good place mentally. We have that consistency and everybody is looking over their shoulder well aware that if there’s a dip in their performance levels then there are good players waiting on the bench.

“That drives us to be the best we can be every day and, at the start of the season, if you had said to us that we would be in this position in the home stretch then I’m sure a lot of people would have taken that. We just need to keep doing the things we have been doing.

“We have a really strong squad at the minute and the fewest number of injuries I have seen at this stage of the season, touch wood, which is good.

“You look a couple of months back and our bench probably wasn’t as strong as we would have wanted it to be but we had a good January transfer window and brought in really strong players. We are in a good place to push on at a really important part of the season.”

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