John Hughes wary of mending striker Stokes' flawed talents

However, manager John Hughes yesterday insisted he remains frustrated at having to tread a fine line between ensuring the Irishman maintains that incisive cutting edge in front of goal and brushing up on the deficiencies he believes hamper the youngster's overall game.

Stokes has spearheaded Hibs' bid to land third place since his arrival from Sunderland in the English Premier League at the start of the season and his goal in the 3-1 win at Falkirk on Saturday took him level on the number scored in open play – 18 – by the SPL's leading goal-scorer, Kris Boyd.

The 21-year-old has shown the poacher's instinct associated with many great strikers down the years and Hughes would no doubt be thrilled if the Republic of Ireland international netted a goal of equal importance in tomorrow's rearranged meeting with current third-place incumbents, Dundee United.

Yet, for a player who left Arsenal for 2 million aged just 18 and who was courted by Celtic at that time, Hughes has identified a handful of areas he wants his leading forward to work on – as long as he does not lose his Midas touch.

"The thing about Stokesy is I'm still a little bit frustrated with him," he explained, "because I want to turn him into a better all-round player.

"But right at this moment in time you're caught between a rock and a hard place because you've seen over the years that if you ask goalscorers to do different bits and pieces then they forget scoring goals. So as long as he keeps hitting the target we're delighted with that and it's a fantastic return from him this season.

"He's still a young boy, he's still got it all to learn. I think he leaves a lot of it to big Nishy (Colin Nish], or his partner, to drop into the hole and get back on to their sitting midfielder. I think his hold-up play and his link-up play has to be better, and I think he could still work a lot harder.

"But when you speak to him he talks about wanting to play on shoulders and only wanting to go one way, he wants to try and score a goal. Great, but I just want a wee bit more.

But I don't want to take that goal threat away."

Whilst acknowledging his team had benefited from slices of luck during a far-from-perfect 90 minutes, Hughes was thrilled his players recovered from the "gut-wrenching" Scottish Cup quarter-final replay loss to First Division Ross County and the preceding Edinburgh derby defeat to Hearts to register only their second victory in ten games at the weekend.

Their worrying slump appeared to coincide with Hughes publicly stating at the end of January the aim of a third-place finish, a goal that had previously only been uttered within the confines of the Easter Road dressing room.

However, with a win tomorrow evening enough for Hibs to leapfrog their opponents and tuck themselves back in behind the Old Firm with only seven matches remaining, Hughes has no regrets over his demands.

"I definitely don't think me saying I wanted third put any pressure on the players," he added. "It was purposely done because I feel the manager of Hibs should always be getting that third or fourth spot and challenging the Old Firm.

"I know where I'm going, I know what I've got in my dressing room and it was just a wee demand on them to go and try and get that, and to see who could handle that and who could play to that win-win-win every week.

"That's where you get all your answers, when you challenge them and see who comes up to the mark."

Meanwhile, Hughes was last night awaiting news of a scan on the knee Merouane Zemmama injured against Falkirk, whilst Paul Hanlon, Kevin McCann and Alan Gow remain unavailable to face United through injury.