Montgomery urges Hibs to continue push for top-six spot
Nick Montgomery has called on Hibs to maintain their recent upturn in form by putting Ross County to the sword and enhancing their chances of making it into the top six of the cinch Premiership.
The Easter Road side slipped into the bottom six after going eight league games in a row without victory from early December.
However, after some shrewd January recruitment and the return of some key players from injury and international duty, Hibs are now unbeaten in their last four matches in all competitions and have collected five points from their last three games to move within a point of sixth-placed Dundee.
“We’ve been playing really well,” said manager Montgomery. “The new boys we brought in are really starting to settle and getting the boys back from international duty has coincided with the last three or four games. I think we have had some real momentum.
“I think we should have had more points than we’ve got but that’s something we can’t change. What we can do is turn up at Easter Road tomorrow for another big game and put in a good performance.” If Hibs – buoyed by an impressive performance in their 1-1 draw away to city rivals Hearts in midweek – can force their way into the top six over the course of their six remaining pre-split fixtures, it would keep them in with an outside chance of a European spot for a second season running.
“We’ll just focus on the next game, I’m not going to look too far ahead,” said Montgomery. “I genuinely believe we should be in the top six now if we hadn’t have had a couple of unfortunate things (contentious refereeing decisions) go against us in the last few weeks. But we are where we are and we’ve still got an opportunity to get there. The
main target is to try and get three points in every game, and that won’t change. We know it’s in our own hands to get into the top six.”
Hibs appeared to be in a state of mild turmoil when they lost 3-0 at home to St Mirren four weeks ago but the feeling around the club has improved as a result of on-field performances plus the confirmation earlier this week that billionaire Bournemouth owner Bill Foley has been given the
green light to become a minority investor and plough £6 million into the Edinburgh club.
“There’s been a lot of talk about the off-field stuff over the past couple of months,” said Montgomery. “It’s exciting for the club moving forward. When I took on the role, there was talk that the club was going to try and grow and make partnerships like this, and it’s really exciting for the club, for the fans, for the players and for me as the manager.
It’s good that it’s all kind of been settled in the past couple of weeks. My focus has been on the football side and that doesn’t change on a day-to-day basis but the future is definitely bright.”
Hibs will be without midfielder Luke Amos for a few weeks after he suffered an injury against Dundee and Josh Campbell is back in light training but is unlikely to be involved at first-team level until late March at the earliest.