'Nervous' Hibs can get back to winning ways, insists Stevenson

When they lost two games in a row for the first time this season it could be written off as a minor ailment: now their run is one win in eight, it is a full-blown crisis of confidence.

Lewis Stevenson knows that was obvious on Saturday, when Hibs lost 2-1 at Tynecastle. As they prepare for this evening's Scottish Cup quarter-final replay in Dingwall, the left-back-cum-midfielder believes his team simply have to show they are better than recent results suggest. "Even the players that were watching in the stand said we looked nervous, we lacked confidence," he said of the derby. "But we believe we're good enough players to get that third position and get a good run in the Scottish Cup as well. I don't see why we can't do it.

"In the first game at Easter Road they were probably the better team, so we've got a lot to prove to the fans," the 22-year-old said of the 2-2 draw with Ross County ten days ago. "We've not been playing well at all recently, and we need a good result.

"The few years I've been playing we've gone through spells like this. You just need to try and get off it as quick as you can and try not to get stuck in a rut. It's the biggest game of the season. If we can win this, hopefully it will give us a lift for the league games as well."

One encouraging sign for Hibs is that despite their poor form, their main goals for the season are still achievable. "If someone had said at the start of the season we'd be two points off third and in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup we'd have taken it," he said. "So it's still in our hands. As soon as you get one win they start coming a bit easier, and that's what we're needing. We just need to get off to a good start (this evening]. Get the confidence up early."

The highlight of Stevenson's career, man of the match in the CIS Cup final win of 2007, has now become almost a burden for him. "It's getting a bit annoying now. People were coming up to me in the street last week and saying, 'Well played in the cup final'. That was, like, three years ago. I wouldn't mind having a decent game again, so we could forget about that."

Tonight would be as good a time as any.