Hibs 2-0 Inverness: Things are finally looking up

A MONTH ago, everyone would had laughed if you'd suggested a top-six finish wasn't yet outwith the reach of Hibs. You'd have been branded over-optimistic or simply delusional.

The Easter Road outfit were then, after all, a club apparently destined for relegation, not quite at the bottom of the SPL heap but rapidly heading that way with little sign of a run which had yielded just two points from ten games coming to an end.

And yet, as February draws to a close, four successive league wins - something Hibs hadn't achieved in three years - has reignited hopes that, after all, they'll still be hanging out with the big boys following the split.

While the gap on basement side Hamilton has widened to 13 points and could stretch even further following tomorrow night's match between the two clubs, the one separating Hibs from the upper half of the table has narrowed to just five points.

It may yet prove too tall an order for Colin Calderwood's players with just six matches remaining before the haves and the have-nots go their separate ways but today, while conscious SPL safety has yet to be completely secured, they can begin casting a cautious eye towards better things.

Of course, whatever happens will remain an under-achievement with the concession that they'll fail to achieve the primary goal set when the new season got underway, namely emulating the fourth place finish of last time round but, at least, they have gone some way to restoring a little of their battered and bruised pride.

Tomorrow night at New Douglas Park and Saturday's game against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park will go a long way to determining Hibs' immediate future but with Aberdeen, Saints and Dundee United also in the chase for the sixth place currently held by Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Calderwood claimed everyone will have been delighted with his side's victory over Terry Butcher's team, a win which, he insisted, had "concertinaed" the central section of the table.

If the two preceding wins over Kilmarnock and St Mirren had been hard-fought, this triumph over what many regard as a bogey team for Hibs was thoroughly merited and is one which will be remembered for a long time by the guys who grabbed the goals: Callum Booth and Lewis Stevenson.

For each it was their first goal in a green and white shirt, 19-year-old Booth thumping an unforgettable dipping shot over the head of Caley goalkeeper Ryan Esson from fully 30 yards before Stevenson clinched victory in the dying minute, his shot in his 104th game for the club deflected on its way to the net.

Stevenson looked on a touch incredulous as he finally broke his duck, admitting he'd celebrated Booth's strike far more wildly than his own, his bemusement finally turning to joy as he was mobbed by his delirious team-mates.

He said: "When Callum scored I almost banged my head on the dug-out as I jumped up but I didn't know what to do after I scored because I've never been in that position before. So how do you celebrate and do you celebrate a deflected goal? One goal every 104 games isn't the best ratio but perhaps that's the floodgates opened. Some of the new boys were asking me how many I'd scored and while I wanted to make up a figure like 16, they soon found out it was my first."

With his contract, like so many of his team-mates', running out this summer, Stevenson can only hope his goal will help his case when Calderwood finally makes a decision on who will be offered a new deal, the Kirkcaldy-born star having become something of a fringe player over the past few months.

But if Stevenson's future is somewhat uncertain, goalkeeper Graham Stack has no doubts Booth, with a new four-and-a-half year contract in his hip pocket, will soon prove, along with fellow defender Paul Hanlon, to be one of the best in Scotland sooner rather than later. The much-travelled Stack, who started his career with Arsenal, said: "I have played with some decent sides down south but rarely do you come across someone who is so comfortable on the ball. Callum has done it the hard way, going out on loan lower down the league but he was prepared to do whatever it takes to get himself into the first team.

"He has made sacrifices and now he is starting to be rewarded. He's simply been different class. Paul and Callum are Hibs lads, they've had pressures from outside with families and friends in their ears all the time but they just go out and play. They are fearless. Neither Paul nor Callum will get carried away.

"They are grounded boys but if they continue to play the way they have been for the rest of this season and next season there's no reason why they shouldn't be looking at the Scotland squad."

Stack, who played his part in the win with two important saves from Adam Rooney and a spectacular clearance as he hurled himself full-length to punch the ball away from the threatening Alex MacDonald, has now lost just one goal, the "penalty that never was" against Killie since returning to action.

But while delighted his recovery from a crippling back injury has coincided with four wins, Stack insisted it was coincidental, pointing to the fact Hibs have fielded an unchanged back division of Richie Towell, Francis Dickoh, Hanlon and Booth in front of him as being a more pertinent reason.

The arrival of new faces in the likes of Victor Palsson, Martin Scott, Matt Thornhill and Akpo Sodje along with Towell have also added a freshness, players unburdened by what had been happening at Easter Road previously, insisted Stack who added: "The back four have been great, it's been brilliant to play behind them. They have their moments and sometimes it is up to me to pull one or two of them out of trouble."On the other hand, there might be a week where I need a bit of help."

Teamwork isn't confined to those at the back, however, with confidence rising in direct proportion to games won, signs of partnerships developing in all areas of a side with Caley boss Butcher admitting Hibs are now an entirely different proposition to the outfit beaten 4-2 in the Highlands a few months ago.

Butcher had no complaints about the result, joking he wouldn't even look at a DVD of the match unless he'd consumed a couple of bottles of his favourite red wine, but adding on a more serious note: "We were second best all day. Hibs deserved the three points. It was as if we'd picked up 14 strangers on the A9 on the way down and even when we had chances I wasn't convinced we'd score. Hibs have certainly come on a lot since we beat them 4-2. Their home form has improved. They have a lot more confidence."

And Butcher paid tribute to the seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of young talent at Easter Road, saying: "There were 13 under-21s between the two squads but a lot of Hibs' under-21s are only 19 or 20 which is great for the future of Hibs and Scottish football."