John Hughes reflected back on the worst week of the season - and in a typically forthright manner the Hibernian manager is using it to rally his side into ever-greater efforts to ensure that rather than it being a forerunner to a downturn in fortunes for his side it becomes a focal point for the team to bounce back and claim the desired prize of a place in Europe.

Talking to Hibernian TV this morning, the manager admitted that it was a set-back to lose three games in six days, it could not have been regarded as anything else: "It was a bad week - there is no point though in talking around games like the one at St Johnstone, you have to take it right on the chin and perhaps look to the reasons why it happened so you can learn from that and use it to try and make sure it is not repeated. I was hoping that we were past all of that in terms of showing a bit of spirit but we capitulated, in particular after losing the second goal. I never really got a response from them at half time either - I said already that I perhaps got it all wrong.

"We were looking for a response on Saturday at Motherwell and it was certainly a case of horses for courses, that is not a great surface and we would need to go there and battle so I picked the team accordingly. We needed to be resolute and hard working but once again I don't think we started great and it was an uphill battle after Liam was sent off. I felt it was a soft sending off and it was disappointing - but over this last week there have been one or two things that have just gone against us, Nish being sent off, I let myself down, Liam was sent off, poor results. This has knocked us a little bit but we need to re-group and get going again, if we keep battling away then we will turn it around again."

The start of any turn-around must come at Easter Road on Saturday when Hibernian once again face St Johnstone, the first of three successive home matches for the side including a vital Scottish Cup quarter-final against Ross County: "St Johnstone has given us a hard time this season - I'm an honest guy I think and while we beat them 3-0 in the league it was flattering us a bit, they beat us 3-1 in the cup and then there was that doing last week. They are a very well organised team that will go out there and do their own thing, you need to take your hat off to them and respect that.

"But we are at home again on Saturday, we have turned our place into a bit of a fortress and if I can get guys like Derek Riordan and Merouane Zemmama playing out there on our own pitch then that is when I think we are at our best. I have a lot of decisions to make before Saturday though. We have our new stand being build announced this week with it being up for next season - would it not be great if we are playing European football here again then?

"I don't want any of us to be sitting around on our holidays reflecting on a season that was ultimately disappointing, lets make sure we are there looking forward to returning and playing in Europe. There is plenty of motivation then out there for us to go and do the job, so I'm saying to the player one game at a time, go out and win your football matches - do whatever it takes to win."