Confidence high at Hibs going into huge three games in tight league, says Shaun Maloney

Shaun Maloney insists confidence at Hibs is good despite three huge pre-split matches on the horizon in a league where seven teams are battling it out for fourth.

Shaun Maloney believes confidence at Easter Road is good

The Capital club travel to Aberdeen on Saturday before hosting Dundee United ahead of a trip to Tynecastle to face Scottish Cup semi-final opponents Hearts.

After last weekend’s victory at Motherwell in the quarter-finals of the cup, the mood at Easter Road is positive ahead of the must-win match at Pittodrie.

Maloney said: “Confidence has been good, there have definitely been periods in the past three, four, maybe five weeks where the performances have been good.

“Sometimes there have been areas of the pitch where we need to get better.

“But I think against Motherwell, particularly in that first half, we showed a big improvement in the final third.

“So confidence is good but it’s certainly not the the time to be happy with what we have, we need to keep trying to improve and keep pushing.”

Asked about the tightness of the league – just five points between fourth and tenth – Maloney continued: “I've never seen the league this tight before, with so many of us chasing the top four. Saturday is a huge game for Aberdeen and a big game for us as well.

"It's a good match to look forward to but it will feel the same for them, and then after that we have Dundee United and Hearts before the split, so three huge games.

"Every weekend you can either move up one or two places, or drop one or two so every game feels like a big occasion at the moment.”

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