Michael Weir: Hibs impress by backing up derby win

Hibs' players celebrate at full-time after winning 1-0 at Motherwell. Pic: SNS

Although it’s always nice to win a derby, the victory over Motherwell on Saturday was arguably an even more impressive result. Considering how well Stephen Robinson has got them playing this season, it was always going to be hard to get a result at Fir Park anyway, but the fact it was on the back of a derby made it an even tougher test because sometimes players can find it hard to get themselves up for the lower-key games. Hibs have had problems with these type of games in the recent past, so they deserve real credit for going through there and putting on such a strong performance and winning with a clean sheet.

In the derby, I felt we looked far too strong for Hearts in all departments. Hopefully these two results can get us going again because we had struggled for consistency since winning at Ibrox in August. Back-to-back victories will do wonders for morale and confidence, and hopefully it’s a sign that we’ve properly found our feet in the Premiership, because both the sides we’ve beaten will have hopes of being in the top six. Other teams are already wary of playing us because they know we’ve got quality and the ability to play really well on our day, but if we could add that consistency that we’ve been missing then we’ll be a formidable side to play against.

Kilmarnock away tomorrow night is another test for us. Although no venue in the Premiership is easy to go to and come away with a victory, Hibs certainly should be going to Rugby Park with any trepidation. Killie have picked up some good results recently but the Hibs players will know that if they go there with the right approach and play at the same level they’ve managed in their last two games, they should get another win.

It helps that we go there with a defence boosted by back-to-back clean sheets and with a couple of strikers in Martin Boyle and Simon Murray who have scored in the last two games in the absence of Anthony Stokes. Even though we’ve only scored twice in those two victories, we’ve been creating good chances and we look again like a team who have got goals in us.