Success for the Ivory Coast in the African Nations Cup will result in Hibernian having to dig deeper still into their reserves, as Sol Bamba and his team-mates eased into the last eight of the tournament so John Hughes has had it confirmed that one of his most influential players will remain on another continent for at least a few weeks more.

If there was any doubt that Bamba is being missed it was firmly cast to one side at Tannadice on Saturday - and while Ian Murray has been given the responsibility of taking over the role vacated by Bamba in the heart of the Hibernian defence, he admits that not hearing the reassurance of Bamba's voice is something he and his fellow defenders need to work through: "Sol is very important of course. He is the spine of the team and gets us going from the back, and it is always nice to hear a voice so that you know what you are doing.

"Graeme Smith saved us with the penalty on Saturday and he has some great saves - he was our man of the match. We tried to protect him as much as we could because Dundee United were trying to play a lot of balls into our box and even though we did not play well in the first half, I thought we defended well, but we lost a poor goal and that has cost us in the end.

"As I said we tried to protect Graeme but you have got to get the camaraderie going and I just don't think that we defended well as a team."   There was a clear mistake made by the match officials in awarding Dundee United a penalty for a foul that video evidence subsequently established was outside the penalty area, but having survived that through Smith blocking the spot-kick Hibernian switched off minutes later and conceded a soft goal to the home side. That said there was some cause for complaint over an offside call at the goal - while at the other end Anthony Stokes was called offside when clear on goal, the benefit of hindsight provided by the cameras again showing he was firmly on-side.

Hibernian then with cause for complaint that the vital close-calls just did not go their way on the day - but neither Murray or anyone else in the Hibernian camp were in any mood to seek out such excuses: "We have seen it again and so has the referee and it was outside the box - but at the end of the day had it gone in and we were 2-0 down at half time, then it wouldn't have been against the run of play at all. They deserved to be going in at the break two or three goals up, and when we got in at half time we were thankful that it was only one."

Hibernian appeared to be out-muscled for much of the game, and that is an issue that Murray confesses has been a problem for Hibernian this season, the defender pointing out that it is something that needs addressing quickly with Hamilton the next opponents to visit Easter Road this week: "I think when we have came up against physical sides that we have struggled a little bit, Hamilton away, losing to the Old Firm and then we have gone to Tannadice and lost to a big strong side. But Dundee United are not just a big physical side, they are also a good side and they beat us fair and square. I thought in the second half we matched up to them fairly well, but it was not enough."

Murray however insists that while Bamba is being missed the side has enough to overcome that loss: "Obviously we were going to miss Sol because he is a good player but we have played against teams like Hearts before without Sol and done well. Perhaps that is down to it being a derby and the blood is pumping and when it has come to other games we have not been up for it when we should be. If we start a game like we did on Saturday then we are not going to get any points at all."

Pics: Alan Rennie for Hibernian TV