Riordan row won't be a factor – John Hughes

JOHN HUGHES today insisted that his players won't allow off-field problems to derail their bid for a European spot.

The Hibs manager says his side are focused 100 per cent on tomorrow's SPL match against Celtic in Glasgow, despite upheaval in the Easter Road dressing-room over the club's decision to discipline striker Derek Riordan for comments he made about the pitch.

The club are believed to have utilised a clause in the 27-year-old's contract which requires him to represent the club in a positive manner, to fine him the equivalent to a week's wages.

Riordan has appealed the decision and has enlisted PFA Scotland, along with his team-mates, to help fight his cause.

However Hughes believes they will put that to one side tomorrow and do their talking on the pitch.

"All I am concerned about is the football, especially now, at this stage of the season.

"I want our players to be spirited and have the right philosophy, to approach games in the right manner.

"I've been in this game long enough to know that sometimes there are outside factors or people trying to chip away at you a wee bit, but I've also been in the game long enough not to let it affect me or my players." Hughes refused to comment on Riordan's fine directly – which was handed out after he claimed that the Easter Road pitch was like a 'bog' and had cost them points this season – but said: "It's internal. I think the pitch is okay, it's not bad. It's good enough to go and play football on it. We're going to Parkhead on Saturday to play Glasgow Celtic – that surface is okay.

"There's five games to go to try and get a few wins to hopefully get us into Europe. We're trying to get back to winning ways and working hard towards keeping clean sheets and being harder to beat and show a spirit we showed when we last played Celtic at Parkhead. That's my only concern, anything else doesn't concern me."

Meanwhile Hughes warned his side that they cannot afford to gift the opposition any more goals if they want to finish in one of the Europa League qualifying spots this season.

"We can't afford to keep giving away the goals that we have been in the last few weeks. Sometimes teams score a spectacular goal against you and there's nothing much that you can do about that, apart from hold your hands up and say well done. But when you look at some of the goals we have conceded lately, you can see that we are beating ourselves on occasion."