Hibs hampered by poor record against top-six rivals as Euro race hots up

IF HIBERNIAN are to secure one of the European places in their post-split matches, they not only need to shrug off their poor form of the last couple of months – they must also play better against their rivals than they have done all season.

A mini-league table of the top six, in which only each team's results against the other five are taken into account, bears a close resemblance to the real thing. Rangers are top by some way, Celtic are trailing along in second place, and Dundee United are just behind them in third.

The only noticeable difference, in fact, concerns Hibs. John Hughes' team are fourth in the SPL at present, two points ahead of Motherwell and six clear of Hearts. When it comes to games against the rest of the upper half, however, they are behind Craig Brown's team, and ahead of their Edinburgh rivals only on goal difference.

The belief that teams raise their game against the big sides is a commonplace of Scottish football, and in terms of the effort put in against Rangers and Celtic may still hold some truth. As far as results go, however, Hibs would appear to play at their best against teams in the lower half of the league.

They have only won three times in their 15 matches to date against other top-six clubs – once against Celtic and twice versus Motherwell. Of their last five league victories, four have been against some of the most lowly teams in the division – Falkirk, Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Hamilton.

Judging by those statistics, then, Hughes will have a tough job keeping his team in their present position, and he knows that a display anywhere near as slack as the one which saw them lose 4-1 at Hamilton a week ago could be punished severely today.

As they prepare for the lunchtime kick-off at Celtic Park, however, they can at least take some optimism from the last time they visited the Glasgow stadium, when a late goal from Danny Galbraith gave them a 2-1 win.

"That was the high point of the season, and since then it has been very difficult and results have not been the best," midfielder Kevin McBride said. "None of us can put our finger on the reason for it, otherwise it wouldn't have gone for quite so long.

"We know that it will be very difficult, just the same as it was the last time. Fortunately we managed to get a 2-1 victory on that occasion, but all of the boys in the dressing room know that it will be another very hard game.

"We went to Hamilton last weekend, who are in the middle of the table, and I think that it was the worst performance of the season from all of us."

McBride conceded that, just as confidence has been a problem for his team in recent weeks, so they maybe had too much of it around the turn of the year, when they were lying third, within touching distance of Celtic. "Confidence could be a factor, but I don't know why we are low in confidence because we are sitting fourth in the league," he said. "Obviously we wanted third, but we are still higher up than we were last year.

"There was a stage in the season when everyone was talking about second and we maybe took our eye off the ball. I think now we have just got to concentrate on fourth place."

The suspension of Liam Miller will put more responsibility on McBride in midfield, but he joked that there was a positive side to the Irishman's absence. "It doesn't put any more pressure on me – it gives me a break from him. Gives me peace.

"Obviously it will be a big miss for the team. He is a massive player for us and possibly our best player this season. There are players here, though, who will come in and hopefully do as well as he did."