Marvin Bartley: Maintain form and wins will come for Hibs

Marvin Bartley is relishing tomorrow's clash with Motherwell

The midfielder is thrilled with the manner in which the Easter Road side have kicked off their return to the top flight – losing only one of their five matches and generally having been deemed the better team in the other four. Despite this, Hibs have been disappointed not to make their superiority count in back-to-back 1-1 draws away to Dundee and St Johnstone, and they now face the challenge of having to snap a three-game run without a win when Stephen Robinson’s in-form team head to Leith this weekend.

Bartley is optimistic that they will do so as long as they can replicate the level of dominance they have shown in recent matches.

“I think we can be proud of how we’ve played this season,” the Englishman told the Evening News. “We were disappointed to lose at home to Hamilton but our performances apart from that have been very good. We’d have preferred to have a few more points from the last couple of games but we’ve performed really well for a team that’s just come into the Premiership.

“We just have to repeat the performance we showed against Dundee and St Johnstone. If we keep performing at that level throughout the season, we’ll win more games than we draw or lose. There’s only so many times defenders can keep clearing things off the line and goalies can make the type of save the St Johnstone keeper (Alan Mannus) made from Martin Boyle’s shot last weekend. As long as we keep performing the way we have been and keep creating the chances we have been, we’ll do very well going forward.”

Bartley, playing in Scotland’s top flight for the first time this season, is enjoying the novelty of facing teams he knows very little about. Motherwell are one such side he has never faced since arriving at Hibs just over two years ago. “Everything’s new to me coming into this level,” he said. “I’ve played against Rangers before and I’ve seen Celtic on television, but I don’t know much about Motherwell. The manager says they’re quite a physical team, and that’s something I relish. If it’s going to be that sort of game, I’ll enjoy it.”