Hibs best as underdogs, says Hughes

JOHN HUGHES wants his players to bring out their best form by going into every match believing that they are the underdogs.

The Hibs manager reckons that being written off by their critics helps his players focus on the task in hand and often sees them play a better quality of football.

He reckons that expectation levels have raised even his own players' hopes and wants them to go back to basics. He said: "I need my players to have the right mindset, it's all about standards, standards, standards.

"Some people go out onto a stage to entertain and others go out there and freeze, I want my players to be entertainers.

"Football is a real test of character and we need to express ourselves, it's all hands on deck.

"Some people think that they just go into games and things will happen for you and that you will win matches. That just doesn't happen. In football you have to work for everything that you get."

With just three league games gone, Hughes stressed that the only major disappointment this season had been the loss to St Mirren last weekend and added: "We played a right good team in Maribor in the Europa League qualifiers, we beat Motherwell, we played the current Scottish champions and more than matched them for an hour. That was probably the best that we have played so far this season, but I still felt that there were things that we weren't doing enough of, that we weren't passing the ball quick enough.

"The game agains St Mirren was a real disappointment for us and we want to make sure that doesn't happen again."