By Hibernian FC

Praise For Wee Hibees

“Personally, I loved it; I thought it was a great evening. It was brilliant to see the fans turning out in their numbers, Block Seven behind the goal continuously singing and creating songs for the lads, I enjoyed that too.

“I mainly enjoyed the spirit of the performance and the organisation of the performance and the fact that the lads were so happy. They had a 1-0 deficit to turn around, and it was a lot of these guys’ first times on the pitch at Easter Road and playing in front of the crowd; it was lovely to see.

“Many individuals performed very well, and I think it was a great advert for the work the Academy do and the work the lads put in every day.

“Really, it’s a great advert to show how close-knit we are as a football club; maybe 14 or 15 First Team players were watching the game and every staff member. No one said they had to go; these lads turned up because they wanted to support the Academy in a really big game.”

Message Ahead Of Motherwell

“We’ve continued our week and there’s been mini-messaging every day. Last week we challenged the players to be at it and consistent to drive standards; this week has been no different.

“This is a different game with a different set of attributes from our opponent. We will still focus on ourselves, respect the opponent’s strengths and maximise our strengths on their weaknesses; that’s the key.

“We started working on that from Tuesday. Everything is themed around ways we can hurt them.”

Work On Set Pieces

“One of our focus points this week has been set plays because we feel like we’re strong from set plays.

“I think we’re second in the table for goals scored and expected goals from set plays, but we do feel there are big improvements to be made there from delivery, timing, movement and first contact.

“A big theme of the week has been set plays and trying to be creative from those as well. I think sometimes you can neglect things like this, but 33% of goals are scored from set plays or the result of set plays in the second phase.

“I don’t want to get too technical, but it’s important and the lads know that. Sometimes those sessions can be a bit boring, but we always want to find ways where we can still have fun. There’s always a serious element to it though.”