Monty keen to cut down gap to bitter rivals
Nick Montgomery admitted Hearts' 21-point advantage over Hibs rankles with him as he challenged his side to trim the gap in tonight's Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle.
Hibs were above their city rivals in the cinch Premiership as recently as mid-December. However, the Jambos have surged clear in third place after winning nine of their last 11 league matches, while Hibs languish in seventh place after winning only one of their last nine.
Montgomery is far from satisfied with the situation but believes the Easter Road side's January recruitment has given them a chance to start playing catch-up on the teams above them.
"I'm not happy with the gap in points and I know the fans are not happy with the gap in points," Montgomery said.
"The fact of the matter is Hearts went on a really good run when we went through a really tough period and lost a bit of ground.
"Every game now is an opportunity to claw points back on the opposition you're playing, and the teams above you.
"We can't change what's happened, but we can give ourselves an opportunity to close the gap on every team above us, like we did at the weekend against Dundee.
"We've brought a lot of new players in, there's been a lot of change, and I think the quality in the squad gives us the chance to finish the season positively.
"We can't look at the points, but we can prepare as well as we can and try to go into the game against Hearts with the right mindset that we can go there and get the result."
After watching his new forward score Saturday’s late matchwinning strike against Dundee, Montgomery said of Myziane Maolida: “I thought Myziane’s goal just summed up his performance. And the team’s performance more than deserved the win. He’s a top-class player and you saw that on Saturday.
“He’s been getting better week in, week out and against every team, he’s a real threat.
“You saw his quality in so many moments, and he’s a real team player as well.”