Hibs to the four once more and Hughes happy - almost

JOHN HUGHES admitted a sense of satisfaction as Hibs came through the friendly with Queen of the South unscathed and having scored eight goals without reply in their last two matches.

They followed their 4-0 friendly victory over Dunfermline with an identical scoreline last night, but with a much slicker passing performance under their belts.

Danny Galbraith opened the scoring for Hibs at Palmerston Park and the goal was quickly followed by their second, this time from Ian Murray.

Lewis Stevenson added his name to the scoresheet before striker Colin Nish rounded off the scoring in the second half but the most pleasing aspect for the Hibs manager was the manner in which his players linked up together.

Hughes said: "I felt that the rain helped us, we got a right good run-out and I thought that we got our goals at the right times. It took us a while to get to grips with it and then I thought that we played some good stuff.

"The most important thing for me is that we have come through the game unscathed and injury-free. We have got a big nine days in Holland, they will be a real tough test for us. I was able to rest a few of the boys last night and keep everyone ticking over."

The Easter Road gaffer switched things around from the weekend game against the Pars with Edwin de Graaf, Derek Riordan, Liam Miller, Kevin McBride, Paul Hanlon and Anthony Stokes, who all started that match, slipping out of the squad altogether along with Graeme Smith.

And their replacements wasted no time in staking their claim for a place in the manager's thoughts for his starting line-up in the SPL this season.

Hibs opened their account after just seven minutes and Nish, who looked sharp throughout the 75 minutes he played, carved the goal out with a beautiful ball through the middle of the Queens defence, Galbraith reading the pass well and leaving both Robert Harris and Marc McAusland in his wake before drilling the ball low into the back of the net.

The small band of travelling Hibs supporters had something else to shout about in 14 minutes when their side doubled their advantage.

Former Manchester United kid Galbraith did well to keep the ball in play almost on the byline and managed to cut it right across the face of Roddy McKenzie's goal for Murray, who had time to open his foot up at the far post and slot home on an angle from inside the six-yard box.

The home side had a chance in 23 minutes when Paul Burns cut down the right and got the better of Hibs skipper Chris Hogg before whipping a cross in for Danny Carmichael.

The striker made good contact with the ball but could only send his effort wide of Graham Stack's left-hand post.

It was three before there was even half and hour on the clock, Nish finding Stevenson with an inch-perfect ball and the little midfielder showed just as much precision with the finish, calmly placing the ball beyond the reach of and outstretched McKenzie.

A couple of minutes later Queens looked good for a goal when Carmichael played a neat one-two with former Celtic and Killie player Rocco Quinn, taking the return and lining up a shot at Stack, but the Hibs goalkeeper was equal to the effort when he pulled the trigger, using his whole body to deny him. The visitors could have had another before the half-time whistle had been blown when Wotherspoon did well to thread Galbraith into the game but this time McKenzie got down well to his left to push the midfielder's shot away with both hands.

The goal of the night came with 51 minutes gone when Nish turned away from two Queens players and unleashed an absolute rocket from fully 30 yards that beat McKenzie and went into the net off the keeper's left-hand post.

The hard work might have been done but Hughes was still roaring at his players - and even at the substitutes who weren't running back to the dug-out quick enough for his liking - to keep pushing.

And he revealed that, even though his players are still in the midst of their pre-season training, he wants his players to know that he is demanding they put 100 per cent effort in at all times.

He continued: "There's a standard that we want to set at the club and they know that everything we do has got to be done at a certain tempo and sharpness.

"It's not just about their application, it's about their movement and the positions that they are taking up, it's about them looking over their shoulders and remembering everything that we have been working on. We made a few changes last night, Kevin McCann didn't play on Saturday so it was good for him to get some time last night. We were desperate to give Michael Hart 90 minutes because he's not had too much football recently, he needed that.

"I was delighted with how it went, one or two of them have been champing at the bit but we're just switching things about a bit and keeping it fresh. We are still in the pre-season and we have still got a lot of running to do."

Queen of the South: McKenzie, Reid, Harris, McAusland, McKenna, Johnston (Trialist), Quinn, Burns, Weatherston, Carmichael, McLaren. Unused subs: McShane, Reilly, Orsi, Degnan, Thomson, Scally.

Hibs: Stack (Brown 45); Hart, Hogg (Thicot 70), Stephens (Taggart 70), Murray (Horner 66); Stevenson, Rankin (Currie 70), Welsh, Wotherspoon (Byrne 63), Galbraith; Nish (McCann 75).

Referee: John McKendrick

Attendance: 979

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