Pool are sure to push Hibs

The big striker believes that the friendly against the Seasiders will be a real litmus test of just how far the Easter Road side have progressed.

John Hughes' men face a tough pre-season schedule.Their trip to Holland later this month, which sees them play four matches in nine days, being preceded by games against Dunfermline and Queen of the South.

On their return to Scotland, Hibs take on Carlisle United and Blackpool, both away from home, and Ian Holloway's Tangerines look set to be their biggest challenge, having just secured promotion to the Premiership.

There will be more than a few familiar faces in the 'Pool line-up with four Scots featuring in the side which beat Cardiff City 3-2 in the Championship play-offs in May.

Charlie Adam, Stephen Crainey, Stephen Dobbie and Barry Bannan - who was on loan from Aston Villa at the time - all played that day, while Stephen McPhee and Stephen Husband missed the final cut.

Adam, in particular, has endeared himself to the home support with a string of commanding performances and some valuable goals from the middle of the park.

But Nish knows that the Blackpool team as a whole will give Hibs a run for their money and the Easter Road striker said: "I think that a lot of the fans will be delighted that we are playing Blackpool in pre-season because the majority of them will make a weekend out of it.

"It will be a good test for us as well because we will be playing against a Premiership team.

"They did well to get themselves promoted last season and I think anyone who saw them play will have been impressed by the way that they have been playing.

"It's a big game for us to end our friendlies with and I think it's a good one to see exactly how good we are going into the start of the new season."

Nish hopes that his side can replicate the start they got off to in season 2010/11 but, unlike last time around, that they can extend their good form until the end of the campaign.

Hibs got off to the best possible start last year, racing toward the top of the table and losing just two of their opening 16 fixtures on the calendar.

Taking 32 points out of a possible 48 saw them tipped to split the Old Firm in the race for Europe, only for the wheels to come off as the season approached the business end.

A 4-1 defeat to Rangers at home was a sign of how things were to pan out and, although they picked their results up in the games that followed that defeat at the turn of the year, another heavy loss to the Glasgow side at Ibrox some weeks later and a 5-1 midweek hammering by St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park gave them a mountain to climb.

The Easter Road outfit picked themselves up sufficiently to secure fourth spot and a place in the Europa League qualifiers on the final day of the season.

But Nish is determined to go one better this season and would love to see Hibs go on a good run in the Scottish Cup too, adding: "We want to try and finish third and better what we did last year, we want that European place again, that's for sure.

"And I think everyone involved with the club would like to see us do well in the Scottish Cup as well."

Nish's only experience of Europe so far has come in the Intertoto Cup for Hibs and he is relishing the prospect of stepping up another level. However he admits that if they want to reach the group stages of the competition, then they will have to reproduce their early-season form of last year: "The only time that I have ever played in Europe was with Hibs in the Intertoto Cup and that didn't go too well to be honest," he conceded.

"Hopefully it will all go a bit better this time around, we will be ready for it and we can maybe even progress into the groups.

"We know that will be difficult but if we can get off to the same kind of start that we did last season then who knows.

"Last season we started off so well and if we had just managed to keep that going, then who knows where we might have finished the season.

"If we can get ourselves off to a similar kind of start this season then I don't think we will be too far off.

"We know that we are a decent side and if we can go into the new campaign off the back of a good pre-season then hopefully we can do ourselves justice."

Nish is looking forward to playing alongside new signing Edwin de Graaf in the SPL and the former NAC Breda captain has a wealth of experience behind him, having also played for Feyenoord: "We already know that Edwin has come in and I am looking forward to working with him. I am sure that the manager will be working on maybe bringing in another couple of new faces and it will be interesting to see how it all works out.

"Edwin comes to the club with a really good pedigree, so he must be a good player.

"I know the manager will have done his homework on him and I'm sure he'll be a brilliant addition for the club."

Hibs and De Graaf reported back for pre-season training at the end of last week but Nish and a number of his fellow team-mates already had a head start, having used the club's training facilities in the preceding weeks.

One man who won't rejoin the rest of the Hibs players for the next couple of weeks is Sol Bamba, who flew out to South Africa to be part of the Ivory Coast squad for the 2010 World Cup, only to be left on the bench for each of their three games in the group stages.

Having featured in almost all of their matches in qualifying and the build-up to the tournament, Nish knows that the big defender might be on a bit of a downer.

He continued: "You always want to try to keep yourself fit so that you are feeling okay when you go back for pre-season training.

"Obviously Sol has had to keep himself fit because of the World Cup even though he didn't play any games.

"I felt for Sol, I sent him a text. He played in all of the games in the build-up to the World Cup so it was a shame that he missed out.

"I am sure that he will be gutted but it is still a great experience for him."...