David Marshall rues Hibs' missed chances against Dundee United - but insists team has stabilised and is playing well

David Marshall hasn’t been conceded many goals this season – in fact, Hibs have the joint-second best goals against column in the league – but the Hibs captain was beaten twice at Tannadice on Tuesday night; once by match-winner Aziz Behich and again by his side’s failure to score themselves.

Speaking afterwards he insisted there were positives to take despite the final result.

“I can’t believe we didn’t score a goal, that was the overriding thought afterwards. We had enough chances to win two or three games,” he said.

“It just wasn’t to be on the night for us but we have to take the positives – we lost 1-0 to St Mirren about a month ago but it felt completely different.

"We seem to have taken massive steps in the last few weeks and if we play like that over thirty games we’ll be fine.

“Everyone seems to be getting fit, there is real competition for places, and the manager has had time to put his ideas across.

“It’s all coming together and we want to take it into the six massive games we have coming up before the World Cup.”

Hibs travel to league-leaders Celtic on Saturday, with Marshall returning to his former club, and the veteran shot-stopper is eager for Lee Johnson’s side to maintain their performance levels before the World Cup break.

David Marshall wants Hibs to maintain performance levels when they travel to his former side Celtic on Saturday

“We have to make sure there is no drop in performance against Celtic,” he continued. “We will go there with confidence.

“It will be weird having been there when I was so young and going back now but I am looking forward to it, you want to be playing in these stadiums.

“After that it’s five games [until the World Cup] and we’ll be judged on those.

“Everyone is getting used to the way the manager works, although it’s still very early yet.

“The signs are good. Does it feel like we have stability now? I really hope so, it’s a bit crazy talking about that on the back of four weeks, but that’s football.

“We’re happy with what we’ve done but there’s are still a lot of areas to improve.

“We know we’re creating chances, we have people in the team who are playing really well.

“I feel we have enough now to really push on.”