Hogg: We must learn from this

And the gutted defender reckons the Europa League exit has made him even more determined to make the qualifiers again next year, only this time go on a run that will do Hibs justice.

A double from Edwin de Graaf was the Hibees' only consolation over the two games, the Dutchman's brace at Easter Road their response to the six goals they lost on aggregate against the Slovenians.

Hogg, who looked set to be replaced by Paul Hanlon in the first half on Thursday night, only to refuse the call to be subbed and battle through the pain of a knee injury to last the 90 minutes, said: "It's a massive disappointment to be out. Europe is where you want to be playing your football and we have got to work really hard to make sure that we get back in there next year and hopefully do better than we have this time around.

"I think that any football game, especially against European opposition, you have got to learn something from that every time. We have learned a lesson from each of the two games and it's disappointing that we couldn't get better results out of those matches and go a bit further in the competition. It maybe showed that we are maybe not ready for that just yet, but I think it makes us even more determined to get back in there next year and really prove ourselves.

"It has got to be a collective effort from everyone, whether that's the players, the supporters or the manager and backroom staff. It's going to be a big season for us, we are looking to improve on last season and we all know exactly what has to be done to achieve that.

"We need to learn from this game now, cut the errors out that have cost us and take an improved form into the league this season."

Maribor looked the sharper side again at Easter Road, possibly as a result of having already played six games in their domestic season in Slovenia.

Hogg wasn't keen to use that as an excuse for Hibs' failure to make it into the next round however, but conceded that the Easter Road outfit will become sharper again in the coming few weeks when the SPL campaign gets underway.

They play their final friendly of the pre-season tomorrow when they travel to Blackpool to face the English Premiership's newest side and he continued: "It doesn't help that they have been playing competitively for the last five or six games but we can't use that as an excuse, I think that we have worked hard enough to prepare ourselves physically to be ready.

"I think it's fair to say the sharpness still isn't quite there yet but I don't think any team's sharpness is there until two or three games into their competitive season.

"I think that's what it's all about. We travel to England this weekend to take on a Premiership side and it's important we put in a good performance. I think each and every single one of us is looking forward to the start of the league. Pre-seasons are getting longer and longer every year because it's all about playing as many games as you possibly can before the season proper starts.

"That's the way that it is going now, you get as many games under your belt as possible and, with us having been in Europe, we've obviously had quite a few already. I can't wait for the real football to get underway and it's important that we stick together because we know that it is going to be a difficult season again and we will have to be at our best if we are to qualify for Europe again."

While Thursday night's performance was much improved from the first leg against Darko Milanic's side, Hogg felt there was still some way to go, particularly with the way Hibs had defended set piece situations.

He said: "We gave it a good go and tried to play our game a little bit differently, tried to play a longer game to put them under a bit more pressure in the early stages but they hit us with the sucker punch fairly early on in the game.

"It was from a set piece again and we can't afford to continue to do that, it really killed us, killed what we were trying to do.

"To be fair, I thought we kept going until they got their second and that was another blow for us really.

"I thought that we showed good spirit to keep going as long as we did, but at the end of the day it just wasn't good enough and that's really disappointing. You have just got to carry on, no matter what the scoreline is, it's down to yourself to try and get a bit of pride out of the game for yourself and for the team.

"Whether we did that or not, I don't know but I think that we gave a better account of ourselves on Thursday night than we did in the first leg. It obviously wasn't part of our plans to give them an early goal and from then on we were gung-ho really, they are a decent side so they are always going to create a few chances.

"I think we put them under more pressure than in the first game, although I think that we still could have passed the ball a bit better, especially with the new pitch.

"We did try to go with a bit of a different game plan but, ultimately, it never worked for us."

Last season Hibs got off to a flying start and the points gained in the early period of the 2009/10 campaign helped earn them their place in the Euro qualifiers, despite a drop in form towards the end of the season, the club eventually finishing fourth.

Hogg would love to replicate that early run and just can't wait to get started: "A good start to the season like last year would be ideal but even if that doesn't happen, we know that it is a marathon and not a sprint, we found that out last season.

"It's up to us to start picking up as many points as we can, as soon as we can and, for me, that starts next weekend when we get our league campaign underway against Motherwell.

"We have got a few big games at the beginning of the season and we are looking forward to it and hopefully to getting off to a good start."