Hibs' Lewis Stevenson: St Johnstone Thrashing was painful, now we have chance to hit back

A further defeat by Motherwell, making it three in just six days for the Easter Road club, followed but, the little midfielder revealed, it was the hammering at McDiarmid Park which hurt the most. Conceding Derek McInnes' team had played well that night, Stevenson insisted Hibs had suffered a collective "off day," in slumping to their heaviest defeat of the season, one which has helped Dundee United cut the gap between fourth and third in the SPL to just one point.

But with the memory of that thrashing still raw, Stevenson was adamant he and his team-mates are ready for a quick-fire rematch. He said: "It hurt a lot of the players, not just being beaten but losing 5-1. We have a chance to put it right quite quickly. I wouldn't have wanted to wait for a few months to play them again. If we can win today then it will all be forgotten."

Despite the disappointments of the past fortnight, Stevenson insisted no-one at Easter Road should lose sight of the fact they are still sitting third in the table, on course for a place in Europe next season. And Stevenson, who has watched much of the action from the bench this season, believes Hughes' players can quickly get themselves back on track. He said: "There were always games where the team doesn't perform as well as it can.

"It was hard to watch. Sometimes you get the feeling where you are lucky not to be involved in those games.

"We just need to bounce back from it. I think everyone just wants to forget. We wanted to get better results over the last three games but we knew there would be a bad spell and it is just a matter of how we can get out of it.

"If we can keep it short and get back to winning ways then it would be great. It was working well enough for us at the start of the season, I don't see why we need to change it now.

"You always want to prove people wrong when you get a lot of negativity. That spurs you on to do better and show what a good player you are."