While a great deal of the attention at any football club tends to be focussing on the guys at the sharp end of the action, scoring the goals that ultimately will decide the success or failure of any campaign, there can be no doubt that a solid backbone is required for any progress to be made in league or cup competition. Part of that backbone at Hibernian in the last couple of years has been Ian Murray, so it was little surprise that the news of his signing a two-year extension to his current contract would bring about some celebration from club supporters.

Ian has quietly gone about his business mostly at left-back but occasionally showing his versatile nature by slotting in at central defence, providing John Hughes with options that every manager is looking to have in his side. Hughes first had contact with Ian when he came to Hibernian as a player in the 1990's and the young Murray was just breaking into the first team - and now as a manager he appreciates more than ever the nature of the man and player: "It is a demonstration of Ian's commitment to Hibernian that he has signed up again and that is just what I want.

"I think he has been right up there this year, rampaging up and down the left hand side and we have really worked him hard. And even at his age I think I can make him better - I think I'm making all the players better. Ian Murray though is everything you want at your club, a guy who is determined to win things, he trains hard and lives his life great and I think that shows on the pitch. He goes to Ibrox and such and it just does not phase him, so I'm delighted and I hope that our supporters will be the same.

"He was just a kid when I was first at Hibernian as a player and you could tell instantly that his attitude was right, he had the willingness and desire to be one of the best and have a real chance at the game. He has done that - and the thing about having Ian in your squad is that you can pick your substitutes with a real attacking option, having Ian in your starting eleven allows you to do that. He can play anywhere along the back four and in the midfield and because you have that allows you to get another attack-minded player on the bench. So I'm delighted that Ian has agreed to stay with us and you know it could possibly turn out to be our best signing of the season."

Ian has been the subject of the usual speculation that surrounds any player when his contract is nearing completion, but while there was obviously going to be interest from others who recognise both his abilities and experience the underlying aim for the player was to remain an integral part of plans at Easter Road: "It was good to get the new contract sorted out fairly early in the new year - getting it all tied up I think was best for myself and the club."

Ian continued: "There was never really any doubt that I would remain here, there were a few other offers around but realistically I always wanted to sign on here again. I had to be patient because these things do take time and it was never going to happen overnight once we got down to talking about a new contract - Christmas is always a busy period in any case so we felt we had to wait until that was all out of the way but things worked out fine."

Murray is now looking forward to helping Hibernian remain in pole position for a place on the European stage next season: "The position we are in now means it would be a major let-down for us all if we did not qualify for one of the European slots. But we know we will need to keep working right to the end, we have a tough, tough match on Wednesday against St Johnstone - they have beaten us already this season and they deserved to do so. We were left disappointed by the result on Sunday against Rangers but that was one of those things, the final result did not really reflect the game itself - now we need to get the points on Wednesday, third place is where we are and where we want to stay, we'll only do that by winning games like this one."

New interviews with Ian Murray and John Hughes are available now on Hibernian TV.