Paul Heckingbottom explains why he already knows everything about Hibs’ Daryl Horgan

As manager of Barnsley, Heckingbottom had Horgan on his radar, attracted by the Republic of Ireland winger’s 24 goals in just 31 league games for Dundalk.

He said: “Daryl is a player I saw a lot in Ireland when I was at Barnsley. He was one I was looking at but we got priced out of it when he went to Preston so I know a hell of a lot more about him than he thinks I do. He’s one player that I know his strengths and weaknesses already.”

It was Horgan’s cross which led to Florian Kamberi opening the scoring against Hamilton on Saturday, the Swiss striker getting the merest touch on the ball to claim his 11th goal of the season but his first in the Premiership since mid-December before Marc McNulty sealed the 2-0 win from the penalty spot.

Heckingbottom said: “Flo can take a lot from that goal. We asked the players, playing against a diamond in midfield to get the ball wide and then work it back the other way to get a two v one. We had three bodies in the box, it was a fantastic ball in and I hope the players can take confidence from it.”

Although Hibs slipped from seventh to eighth in the table, the gap between them and the top six was trimmed to just three points with a trip to face Dundee – buoyed by a win over Livingston which lifted them out of the bottom two – to come on Friday night.

Heckingbottom said: “We are looking at seven games left to try to get in to the top six which makes each game vital no matter who we are playing. That will be our approach.”