A torrid six-days for John Hughes ended on Fir Park's patchwork pitch yesterday - and while most supporters will wish to consign the week to history as quickly as possible the manager will seek to use it as a standing reminder to his players that good as the season might have been the real test of their character starts now. Hibernian lost three games in a row for the first and hopefully final time in this campaign, and while third place remains in their grasp the side know that it is now a very tentative grasp.

There is now a full week for work to be done on getting things back on track, and with the next five games facing the side all taking place in Edinburgh there will certainly be no travel-blues for a while. The first of those games is at Easter Road on Saturday, a match that provides an immediate opportunity for the side to make amends for their lowest point of the season, that humbling defeat in Perth last midweek. For the visit of St Johnstone however the manager will be minus another of his squad, the red card shown to Liam Miller a further blow to Hibernian's season - and perhaps in terms of the game yesterday a fatal one that Hibernian just could not overcome.

By the time the manager had to meet the press post-match he had already 'enjoyed' the advantage over the media in that he had seen a detailed video replay of the moment the match turned firmly in favour of the home side: "I have had a chance to see it because my Prozone guy comes right in after the match - and it wasn't a sending off, if that was a sending off then Scottish football is in a sorry state. At the most it was a booking but I feel that because of the reaction of the players and the supporters the referee maybe got caught up in that and should have stepped back from it - but its part and parcel of football. He wasn't showing his studs or went through him, nothing like that, it was a side foot tackle and was maybe a bit reckless, but it never merited a straight red."

A straight red however it was deemed to be and Hibernian were forced to endure a man down against the form team in Scotland at the moment and on a playing surface that provokes as much debate as does the football played on it. Not that the Hibernian manager was ever likely to use that as a reason for the demise of his side, who battled bravely against the odds but ultimately without the fortune you need in such situations: "It wasn't to be and that was it but it made it a real uphill battle for us. On a heavy pitch the boys gave us everything they have got and I am disappointed for them that they have lost the goal so late after hanging on in there. I do feel we could have defended the goal better however - but the pitch is the same for both sides so that was not the reason."

There are sure to be further changes to the side with Miller now counted out, but no matter who he selects for the St Johnstone game the manager expects his side to dig in and keep digging in to the end of the campaign: "This defeat perhaps shows the way our luck has been going for us at the moment, but we need to rise above it. I am asking the boys to show plenty of character to make sure that we are still sitting in third and we keep digging in there. On Saturday we chopped and changed it but I have always said that even the boys that have found themselves sitting on the bench for the matter of weeks are good enough to come in and do a job. I felt that Lewis Stevenson was possibly the pick of the bunch and just needs to keep digging in."