Hibs fringe players need to grab chance in Euro push – Yogi

HIBS boss John Hughes today challenged his fringe players to play their part in a final push for European football as he admitted his squad will be stretched over the last six games of the season.

With midfield playmaker Merouane Zemmama already ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with a ruptured cruciate ligament, Hughes knows suspensions and injuries are set to cause him further problems.

Ivory Coast defender Sol Bamba is facing up to a three-match ban, while influential midfielder Liam Miller has also incurred a one-game suspension.

And skipper Chris Hogg, Paul Hanlon, David Wotherspoon and Kevin McBride have all been missing recently as they battle to overcome a variety of injuries.

Although Alan Gow returned to play the final few minutes of Sunday's clash with Celtic following a hamstring problem, the forward remains short of match fitness, while Kevin McCann is in the same position, the full-back back in training but without a first team appearance since the opening day of the season.

Hughes' selection problems have opened the door recently for Patrick Cregg and Steven Thicot to feature despite having been consigned to the bench for most of the season and 19-year-old Scott Taggart has been listed among the substitutes for the last two games.

But, while admitting he may have to gamble on the fitness of some, the Easter Road manager wants others such as Abdessalam Benjelloun, Danny Galbraith, Kurtis Byrne and Darren McCormack, who have been on the periphery to a large extent, to step up to the mark.

He said: "We are going to be stretched but no matter the situation if you are sitting in that first-team dressing-room then you have to go out and play to a standard that will win us games.

"We might have to gamble and throw one or two but I've been going on at them all season telling them that every now and again someone will have to come in and do a job for us.

"Hopefully, there's a few who will feel they have a point to prove, to show me they should have been in the side in the first place."

Compounding Hughes' worries is the fact that bounce matches with other clubs are difficult to come by at this time of the season, limiting the opportunity for those recovering from injury to help regain full match sharpness.

He said: "We're playing a lot of games among ourselves, eight-a-side and the like but there's nothing like playing competitive matches. Instead, players are having to do all their fitness work on the training ground."