Club legend insists top six should be 'bare minimum' for club of Hibs' stature

Mickey Weir insists top six is the bare minimum expected of any Hibs side as Shaun Maloney’s team sit on the precipice ahead of this weekend’s Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle.

Shaun Maloney’s men are hanging on to sixth place with a one point advantage over Livingston and Ross County and just a two-point gap above Aberdeen and St Mirren going into the last round of fixtures before the split.

Failure to defeat Hearts would take it out of their hands and in need of results from elsewhere. If they were to drop out, it would be the first time Hibs were playing in the bottom six since the relegation season of 2013/14. They finished seventh in 2019/20 when the campaign was halted by the pandemic, but were in sixth place when the league came to a stop after 30 games.

Hibs legend Weir believes it’s time for Maloney and his players to stand up to the challenge this Saturday in Gorgie.

Hibs drew 1-1 with Dundee United last Saturday at Easter Road. Picture: SNS

“It would be a big blow. At Hibs you're looking for the top six as an absolute minimum,” he said. “There would be nowhere to hide. We've got to look at the results. It's one win in 12 games in the league.

“It would be a hard one to swallow for supporters as it’d be the league season basically done. It would be a huge negative.

“At a club like Hibs you've got to be in the mix every year for Europe and if not then it's a failure, no doubt. This is nitty-gritty time now. This is the time when you need to get results.”

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