Mickey Weir: Elias Melkersen is the type of striker Hibs have been crying out for

I’ve lost count the number of times this season where a cross has been flashed across the six-yard box or the 18-yard area and there hasn’t been a Hibs striker attacking it.

So it was really encouraging to see January signing Elias Melkersen doing exactly that to get on the end of Sylvester Jasper’s cross to put us ahead at Fir Park in the 2-1 victory over Motherwell in the Scottish Cup quarter-final. The 19-year-old was making his full debut and immediately endeared himself to the Hibs support.

He's a different type of striker from what we’ve got. He showed real enthusiasm and bravery in his quest to score goals and I think we've lacked that for most of the season, a real killer instinct in the middle of the box. It wasn't just his two goals as well, I thought his movement was outstanding.

Jasper is an exciting addition as well. He's got a lot of confidence about him which is something you always want to see in a young attacking player. He's someone who can definitely create.

Sylvester Jasper set up two goals for Elias Melkersen, right, in Hibs' 2-1 victory over Motherwell in the Scottish Cup last weekend. Picture: SNS

Manager Shaun Maloney has been quite unlucky because there's still a lot of players out injured, let's not forget this. But he also wants to bring in players in the top half of the pitch who are going to create and score goals. It's what Hibs fans want to see. We're a support that always wants to see players being creative in the final third and entertaining the crowd.

I thought his team did well against Motherwell last weekend. A lot of the players, especially the younger ones, ran out of steam in the second half. Yes they were playing against ten men but it doesn't matter. They're still 19 and 20-year-olds, they're still going to find it tough playing against a really physical team full of big, strong, fully grown men. They had to hang in there at times and I thought they did that.

The opening 45 minutes was encouraging. We've had plenty of the ball in recent games but looked nowhere near as much of a threat as we did in the final third as we did on Sunday. Suddenly there’s a lot more excitement around this team.

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