Gray hails Hibs dynamic duo as Easter Road gaffer seeks home improvement against Motherwell

Hibs boss David Gray believes his dynamic midfield duo of Nectar Triantis and Hyeokkyu Kwon have provided a platform for the whole team’s recent improvement. And the gaffer has challenged his players to capitalise on improved performances by bagging maximum points against Motherwell this afternoon.

Gray, who has paired the Australian and South Korean together in the absence of injured club captain Joe Newell, now back in contention for a start after a double hernia op, said: “Yeah, I think they've done really well. They're part of two very positive performances.

“But it's not just that, when you look at the full shape in general, the two in the middle of the pitch have definitely helped from a stability point of view. But also your back four needs to be really solid because of the two in front of you, and the communication from behind - and that starts right from the goalkeeper.

“But then if you look at it from the top end of the pitch, the work that Myko Kuharevich and Josh Campbell have done, for example, at the weekend against Rangers, massively helps the two in the middle of the pitch. And then the wide players, Junior and Chris Cadden when they were on, being really narrow and affecting the unit altogether.

“It's more that collective rather than any individual that's doing it. So credit to the players for carrying out the instructions.

“But one thing I have been clear on, as well, is that they're good football players, and when you have got the ball you need to trust your ability. That's something that I've already touched on when we talk about Joe Newell coming back to add to the group, Martin Boyle's not in that squad, Kieran Bowie's not in that squad - there's a lot of strength and depth here and it's something that we're excited about. But I know we need to pick up the results to give us the opportunity to really push on.”

Admitting that this afternoon’s visit of Motherwell is precisely the sort of game Hibs must win, if they’re to realise their ambitions for the season, Gray said: “One hundred per cent. Listen, you see the league already, everyone can beat everyone. We know we need to be at the top of our game to beat anyone in this league.

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“But we also know we're a very good team and if we do play to that level, we're very hard to beat. So I fully expect us to have a tough game at the weekend.

“But these are the games where you need to try to make your home record as good as possible. We've got an opportunity to try and improve that at the weekend.

“It's easy for a coach to stand and say: ‘We need to do this.’ You can try to prepare the players for what to expect, but there's no better feeling than actually playing in the games, experiencing it and understanding when we are good and what was good about it.

“When you look at it, we've now played Rangers away, we've now played Celtic as well. So let's make sure we start concentrating and turning these performances into results.”