Michael Weir: Hibs are doing it the hard way

It's reached the stage now where we've just got to accept that Hibs are going to do it the hard way.

Dumbarton goalkeeper Alan Martin pulls off a save to deny Hibs' Grant Holt. Pic: SNS

For most of the season, I’ve been waiting for us to pull away and tie up the title with a bit of comfort, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

The simple fact is we’ve been too inconsistent to run away with it, just as we were in our two previous seasons in this division. We’ve just been fortunate that, until this point, we’ve not had a genuine rival able to go toe-to-toe with us over the course of this season. That could all change in the coming weeks, though, depending how our next two games against Falkirk and Morton go. Those two are still in the mix, especially Morton, and the key thing from their perspective is that there is no pressure on them, while there is massive pressure on us.

Morton probably didn’t even expect to be in the play-offs, never mind challenging us for the title. They have nothing to lose, so they are a real danger to us. As well as our games against Falkirk and Morton, we also still have to face teams like Raith Rovers and St Mirren who are fighting for their lives, so it’s not going to be straightforward.

But at this stage of the season, we can’t allow negativity to creep in. We are still the best team in the league and we just need to focus on getting over the line by hook or by crook. We can reflect and analyse our failings at the end of the season and the manager can then try and address them for next season. But the main thing is that we’re doing that ahead of our return to the Premiership.

It feels like every week I’m looking at things from a different angle. Sometimes, like last week, it feels like we’re nearly there and other times, like now, it feels like we’ve got a lot of work still to do. But I would be pretty confident that, if we win our next two games, we’ll be all but promoted. These matches against Falkirk and Morton are massive, and the fact there’s so much riding on them should help us because, as everyone is well aware, we are generally at our best in the high-profile matches.