Midfielder keen to kick-start Hibs career after injury

Matt THORNHILL has been at Easter Road for the best part of six months, but only now does he feel his Hibs career is finally getting under way.

Colin Calderwood's first signing - reuniting the pair who had been manager and player at Nottingham Forest - midfield star Thornhill found himself beset by injury problems. Having arrived nursing an ankle knock, the 22-year-old then suffered a hamstring injury before medial ligament damage brought his season to a premature end, the catalogue of problems he had endured limiting him to just eight games in a green-and-white jersey.

Now, though, having featured in Hibs' first two warm-up matches, scoring in a 5-2 win over Morton in a closed-doors match at East Mains and playing for the first 45 minutes as Calderwood's side ran out comfortable 3-0 victors over Berwick Rangers in their first public outing of the summer, Thornhill is viewing the coming season with relish.

Hoping for another half-match against Livingston tonight, the Nottingham born-and-bred player said: "I didn't really get off to a good start, I came with an injury and then got another which kept me out for five or six weeks at the end of the season.

"So I feel as if I haven't got my career at Hibs kick-started at all. I'm fit now, though, and ready to go. I played last Thursday, again on Saturday and hopefully I'll get another 45 minutes tonight to help the fitness along. My knee feels strong, I've trained every day and not had a niggle from it."

Berwick was the first of five pre-season matches arranged by Calderwood, East Fife on Saturday following tonight's visit to West Lothian before Barnsley pitch up at Easter Road on Saturday, July 16, with a trip to Falkirk completing Hibs' preparations ahead of the opening game of the season, Celtic at home.

And, although Hibs have enjoyed two comfortable wins so far, Thornhill insisted gaining match fitness was the over-riding concern, hence Calderwood fielding virtually two separate teams at Shielfield Park, only goalkeeper Graham Stack and centre-half David Stephens starting the second half although they, too, were replaced before the end.

He said: "It was a difficult match against Berwick with them playing five in the middle while the grass was a bit sticky, which meant we had to play a lot of long balls.

"But we came through well in the end with three goals. We had two different teams out with some guys playing slightly out of position, such as Victor Palsson going to centre-back for the final few minutes but these games aren't about positions but getting fitness up.

"We've got a squad of about 24 and we all need games."

The Berwick outing gave a sizeable Hibs support their first sighting of Garry O'Connor and Ivan Sproule since their return to Hibs but they were denied a glimpse of Calderwood's third summer signing, Sean O'Hanlon, a slight knock keeping the MK Dons defender out although he's expected to feature tonight.

O'Connor and Sproule may not have played in the past as a strikeforce together as they did on Saturday but Thornhill liked what he saw of them, while Akpo Sodje stepped off the bench to supply a composed finish to claim Hibs' third goal.

Thornhill said: "I've seen Garry and Ivan in training over the past two weeks and they've been looking very bright. Ivan, as everyone knows, is very quick - we'll be looking to take advantage of that by playing balls in behind the opposition's back four - while Garry is a good finisher.

"Along with Akpo, who is great at holding the ball up, there's going to be stiff competition for places up front but we are also going to have that in midfield with the likes of Victor, Martin Scott, Edwin de Graaf, David Wotherspoon, Lewis Stevenson, Danny Galbraith and myself fighting it out, which will be good for the manager."

It goes without saying that despite being a new arrival, Thornhill was as disappointed as anyone at Easter Road to see Hibs slide to tenth place in the SPL table, their worst finish in a decade. He insisted, however, that all eyes are on a much brighter future.

He said: "We want to make it as good a season as possible, to get off to a good start and take it one step at a time from there.

"But we do kick off with a couple of tough matches, Celtic and then Inverness Caley away, somewhere I hear we've never won. It will be hard but we'll take each game as it comes."