Hibs turn attention to surpassing last season's achievements

Stevie Mallan was left frustrated by Hibs defeat by Molde on Thursday

The Hibees saw their continental adventure brought to a shuddering halt against Molde, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s clinical hosts registering a 3-0 victory to progress to a play-off round tie against Zenit St Petersburg.

By contrast, Neil Lennon’s charges paid for a host of missed opportunities, both in the first-leg stalemate in Edinburgh and on Thursday night.

While devastated to see their run come to an end, Mallan knows the visitors were far from outclassed in Norway and there was no sense of despondency in the air.

Indeed, the summer signing from Barnsley was more bullish than ever, revealing they will now turn their focus to topping last season’s Premiership points tally of 67 – which was in itself an all-time top-flight high for the Capital club.

“Hurt and disappointment is the main feeling after Thursday,” said Mallan, ahead of the Hibees’ return to domestic action against Ross County in the Betfred Cup tomorrow.

“We felt we could go to Molde and get a result. That’s obviously not the way it’s panned out.

“But we are a club in a good position. We achieved our highest points total last season and the manager’s already said that he wants to surpass that.

“We feel we’re capable of doing that – we have a good enough squad to do it.

“I think that’ll be our next goal.”