John Potter urges Hibs to play to strengths and become 'attacking, goal-scoring team'

John Potter has urged Hibs to play to their strengths and believes the creativity in the team can make the strikers' job easier

John Potter has called on Hibs to play to their strengths to become “an attacking, goal-scoring team” to be feared by opposition sides.

Top scorer Christian Doidge took his tally for the season to 16 against Ross County, while fellow striker Marc McNulty made it four in two games as the Easter Road side coasted to a 3-0 win.

And assistant head coach Potter believes that the budding strikeforce will thrive on the service they receive from a side packed with creative players.

Doidge endured a slow start to his career in Edinburgh under former boss Paul Heckingbottom following a £350,000 summer move from Forest Green Rovers, but has proved to be a regular scorer since Jack Ross succeeded the Yorkshireman.

Doidge and McNulty partnership

Now he has been paired with McNulty, a player Ross and Potter know well having taken him on loan at Sunderland earlier in the season before moving to bring him back to Hibs for a second spell on what was a hectic January transfer deadline day.

“Between the two of them they have a little bit of everything,” said Potter. “The main thing is they both have goals in them. But they are very different players.

“Christian is more about getting in the box, he’s good in the air and he’s strong and awkward to play against, he’s a good finisher.

“Marc’s playing off people and running in behind, playing in little spaces. You need to create chances for him. He’s a good finisher, wants to run in behind teams which can be a little bit of a dying art and that is the last thing a lot of defenders want to face. That can be really difficult for them.

“So hopefully they can continue. We haven’t had a lot of time out on the training pitch, so it’s been difficult. But good players can play together, they showed that the other night.”

Strikers won't shoulder all the attacking expectation

Potter insisted, however, that it’s not all down to Doidge and McNulty, pointing to the players behind them. He said: “We have players who can create chances, whether it comes from Scott (Allan), Martin Boyle coming in, Greg (Docherty) driving forward or Lewis (Stevenson) and Joe Newell on the left.

“So we have to play to their strengths. We want other teams to look at us and think ‘they’ve got good players’. It’s important we play on the front foot and create chances for the strikers.

“If those two can build up a partnership, and have people around them who can also chip in with goals and assists, then we have the makings of an attacking, goal-scoring team.”

Having said that, Potter has urged his players to pick up where they left off in midweek when they face Kilmarnock at Rugby Park tomorrow, the Ayrshire side but a single point behind Hibs in an increasingly tight race for a top-six finish.

Kilmarnock came back to defeat Rangers in midweek, a result which will have filled Alex Dyer’s players full of confidence but, insisted Potter, it could well be the team that starts the game better which will emerge victorious.

“The first goal could be vital in this one,” he said: “If we can start the way we did the other night that would be great. Winning any game 3-0 in this league, home or away, is big.

“So if we can be tight at the back, we didn’t give away a lot of chances the other night, and go forward well as a team, we think we can be a threat to most teams.”