Michael Weir: Aberdeen-Hibs game will be different this time

Jamie Maclaren's arrival on loan has been a big boost to Hibs

At the start of the season, I felt fifth or sixth would have been a good way to start back in the Premiership, so to guarantee the top four with three games left is brilliant.

Now that we can’t slip below fourth, we can concentrate fully on trying to finish second. We looked out of the race a few months ago but we’ve clawed our way back into it and I’m confident the players will thrive in the last few games.

We’ve got another massive one against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday and we’ll have to take something from it, ideally a victory.

It’s almost like a cup final, and I fully expect Hibs to be right up for it and intent on winning the game.

I don’t think we can go into this game thinking a draw might be okay – we need to approach it with a positive attitude, and I’m sure that will be the case.

The players and manager were hurt by the 4-1 defeat at Pittodrie in December but I thought the fixture schedule had caught up with us that day. We looked a tired side. We’re a totally different animal now and I think you’re more likely to see a Hibs performance like the one we saw against Aberdeen at Easter Road in February. If we get that, we’ll have every chance of winning.

As I’ve alluded to a few times already in recent months, the main reason for the improvement in our results since January has been the arrival of Florian Kamberi and Jamie Maclaren. They’ve given us a freshness and they look like they can score against any side. I felt we had become a bit predictable midway through the season, but those two have come in and given us a new dimension and additional threat in the second half of the campaign, and we saw their value again on Saturday. They were an unknown quantity when they came in and I think they’ve probably taken some opponents by surprise.

I hope we can keep both of them for next season. It will be difficult because finance always plays a part in these things but, if we can get them tied down for next term, it would be a real boost for the club.