Paul Heckingbottom hails Hibs’ positive approach during win at Dundee

Flo Kamberi lifts Stevie Mallan who made it 4-1

The Easter Road side made it two wins in two for their new boss, Flo Kamberi putting them ahead only for Paul McGowan to haul the home side level. But Marc McNulty scored twice and Stevie Mallan added his 12th of the season with a thunderous strike to earn the points before Martin Woods trimmed their lead with a late goal for the Dens Park outfit.

Afterwards Heckingbottom declared himself pleased with the win, adding: “We have the right sort of effort and honesty, that’s all you can ask for. We can pick holes in the performance in how we played because you can always improve and get better.

“But the message of playing on the front foot, being positive and trying to create is important.”

Kamberi and McNulty have scored five goals between them in Heckingbottom’s first two matches in charge, the Swiss striker making the point of running to him when he scored.

The Hibs boss said: “I wasn’t happy with the strikers in the first 20 minutes and they knew that, but they know how we want to play in that shape and what they need to do.

“Flo has just been like the rest of them, he’s worked his socks off and given everything on the pitch. He knows he can improve, so he is putting the work in.

“They have all been like that. We will make mistakes and lose games along the way and there are ways to do that.

“I knew there was plenty to work with before I came in and I can see it for myself now.

“The top six is in our hands, we can’t control what the other teams do so we just have to focus on ourselves and keep pushing.

“There are six games to go until then so we will just look to make our performances better and see where we are after those.”

Dundee boss Jim McIntyre admitted his side had played a huge part in their own downfall, blaming individual errors which were punished by Hibs.

“When you do that its always going to be hard,” he said. “Hibs are a good side, they were better in the first half and their wingers caused us a lot of problems.

“We were slow to move the ball but the reaction in the second half was excellent.”

McIntyre claimed Dundee had a stonewall penalty denied when former Hearts defender Ryan McGowan was “dragged to the deck”.

And he felt McNulty could have been red carded for flicking out with his boot at the Dens Park player, claiming the pictures were “pretty conclusive” although Heckingbottom was adamant he had not seen the incident.

McNulty himself dismissed the incident, saying: “It was handbags. It was one of those, it happens quite a lot. We both shook hands and got on with it.”