John Hughes can expect his squad to arrive at the Hibernian Training Centre this morning with smiles all round, exactly the situation the manager has been cultivating since his arrival in the summer. And the smiles certainly don't stop at the entrance to their East Lothian headquarters - Hibernian supporters everywhere are going to work this Monday morning with an extra spring in their step, all is well with the Hibernian world.

Ten points from the last twelve has hoisted the side into third place but perhaps of more importance Hibernian remain in touch with league leaders Rangers. Hibernian will go to Ibrox this weekend in the knowledge that Rangers will be more than a little concerned at what they need to overcome if they are to remain at the league summit.

The Hibernian manager will not need to caution his side about over-confidence as they go about their work this week - it's a message he has been beating out all season. He continued to do so at the weekend: "We've done well so far, but there is a lot more work for us to do yet, we are nowhere near finished and my players all know that." At the same time everyone connected with the club has a right to feel good this working week, not the least such as Merouane Zemmama who once again turned in a master-class on Saturday.

Zemmama promised on his return to Easter Road from a year-long loan spell that he would repay the club for the patience and faith they had accorded him during his absence, his first instalments on that repayment have been impressive! Against Kilmarnock, Zemmama appeared to be working on the theory that if you keep banging at a door often enough someone will open it - there were only 8 minutes remaining when a chink finally appeared in the Kilmarnock door on Saturday, but it was enough to see Hibernian safely to three more points.

"We really deserved to win the game, especially in the second half which was played out in their half and we had a lot of chances," a delighted Zemmama commented post-match, adding: "We were unlucky that we did not score with one or two of the chances we had, but in the end we got the penalty which we did score and it is a very important three points - and we will keep going." While the Moroccan international is oozing confidence, his manager will perhaps not be quite ready to share his assertion that Hibernian are good enough just yet to launch a challenge on the Old Firm domination of the SPL.  All the same Hughes will be quietly pleased that his own assertion pre-season, that he could get the best out of his Moroccan pair if they were willing enough, is showing clear signs of becoming fact.

Zemmama and Benjelloun arrived back in Scotland dispirited by their countries failure to qualify for the World Cup finals - if they were however carrying a hangover from that it was not apparent: "I was very disappointed after the Morocco game and I told myself that in this game I needed to play well. I hope now we will play well against Cameroon and qualify for the African Nations because we can't look backwards, we have to look forward. We need to focus on going forward and that is football, you want to qualify but sometimes it doesn't happen and we now need to look forward to the African Nations

"The manager spoke with me at half time on Saturday and said 'now you are with Hibernian, you are not with Morocco and your focus must be on this game'. If I did not focus on this game my mind would be lost but I focussed this week on winning this game and get the morale back." Hibernian must now prepare for their toughest test yet at Ibrox, yet if that game comes down to a test of self-belief then Hibernian could already be a goal up: "I believe we can win there because we won there a couple of years ago with John Collins. I was there and we played very well and deserved to win so hopefully we can do that again on Saturday."