Sproule sure to noise up Hibs dressing-room

Colin CALDERWOOD has told his Easter Road stars to start speaking up for themselves and not to take everything he tells them as gospel.

And the Hibs boss feels his first summer signing, Ivan Sproule, is the man to noise up his new team-mates, confident the Northern Ireland winger can help bring the dressingroom to life.

Not only certain the 30-year-old can reproduce the form he showed during his first spell in Edinburgh, Calderwood also believes Sproule's bubbly character will be equally important off the pitch.

Admitting his dressing-room is on the quiet side, Calderwood said: "We need a voice, the dressing-room needs more voices than are in there.

"We need someone who is a voice but is also able to bring the young ones on and create an atmosphere because of their personality that allows people to breath and evolve. Ivan looks as if he is certainly one of them and I am really looking forward to working with him."

And rather than have his players hanging on his every word, Calderwood is asking them to start questioning what they are told, arguing that he and his coaching staff can't gauge whether or not they are taking in what is being said if they simply sit mute.

He said: "It's about giving them freedom and not to be scared of voicing their opinion even if they are completely wrong at times. I don't really want them to sit there. They have to learn, they have to prove and ask questions of the coaching staff and of myself. Just telling someone what to do is not the way, we have to understand how they learn, through repeated actions, telling them, watching videos, a combination of all these things."

Calderwood, pictured, obviously feels the fact he has, in the main, a young squad, possibly inhibits them from voicing their opinions to him but he knows they are quick to do so among themselves. He told Hibs TV: "They all have personalities, I hear them in the dressing-room and at the back of the bus as we travel. They have a voice, they have an opinion so we want them to take their personal life personality in to being a footballer, crossing that line with an edge that on occasion is out of character to that they display in day-to-day life."

Meanwhile, Hibs Ladies, already holders of the Unite Scottish Cup, will be looking to make it a double tonight when they face Spartans in the final of the Premier League Cup at Alloa Athletic's Recreation Park (kick-off 7.30pm).