Hibs were too good, too late - Caldo

Colin CALDERWOOD admits Hibs came good too late to be considered a candidate for the top-six this season but insists the peaks and troughs of their results are merely a true reflection of their form.

Calderwood's side will contest their last SPL game before the split against Hamilton Accies at Easter Road this weekend and then enter a series of five matches against fellow bottom-half teams.

Hibs made it six wins in nine with three points from their visit to Pittodrie on Saturday, a run that Calderwood says serves to illustrate the increasing understanding between his players, rather than evoke frustration at what might have been.

"It is what it is - a realism of where we are," said Calderwood of his run of results since being installed in the Hibs hotseat in October. "You can't keep harking back (identifying poor results to explain our league position] - that's water that's passed under the bridge. We can give people experience and develop units and be better."

The former Nottingham Forest manager's reign in the green half of Edinburgh began with defeat at Pittodrie and subsequent losses at Dundee United and at home to Hearts. After a thrilling 3-0 win at Ibrox, Hibs beat Motherwell before embarking on a 12-game winless streak. Since then, Hibs have posted improved performances and have racked up 20 points from a possible 27 since the start of February, a run that culminated with victory at Pittodrie.

"There's a level I expect them to play at," said Calderwood. "We started close to it (against Aberdeen], then dipped way below it. In periods of the second half, we were under the cosh, but that's good experience for the players, the back four - three 19-year-olds, one 21 - credit to them. Matt Thornhill sustained a knock to his knee but continued amid the action in the north-east as Hibs had used all their substitutes, while Derek Riordan and Francis Dickoh didn't play due to a dead leg and injured hamstring respectively.

"We'll keep our fingers crossed (for Thornhill], said Calderwood. "We don't want to have done any more damage to what's a knock round his knee. But, if it was so bad I believe the physio would have said to take him off and he didn't say that.

"Riordan has a bit of a thigh knock, a dead leg. Dickoh trained (before the Aberdeen game] but still felt an effect of a sciatic at the top of his hamstring."