Festive programme gives Collins reason for Christmas cheer

HIBS boss John Collins was today targeting a joyful Christmas for the Easter Road faithful after watching his side slide to sixth place in the SPL table.

The Festive period sees Hibs play three matches at home with their only game "on the road" being the short trip across the Capital to face Hearts at Tynecastle on Boxing Day.

And, having seen his side lose two games on the bounce, Collins is now looking for maximum points from the hectic schedule of four games in just 11 days, with St Mirren, Dunfermline and second-placed Aberdeen all due to visit Easter Road. While disappointed to lose to Falkirk at the weekend, Collins today told his players to put that setback behind them and to concentrate on the upcoming matches.

He said: "I certainly felt we deserved to take something from Falkirk. I thought we played some good stuff in the second half, we just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net.

"We made chances and never took them while I don't think they really had any chances."

Collins described the two goals lost at Falkirk as "cheap," Shelton Martis putting the ball into his own net for third time this season while a lack of understanding between skipper Kevin Thomson and Rob Jones allied to a momentary loss of concentration by Merouane Zemmama contributed to Liam Craig scoring the Bairns' second.

Collin said: "It was disappointing not to get the points we feel we deserved but we still played football and dominated the game.

"However, that match is gone. We are now in the wonderful position of having three of our next four games at home and we are looking to pick up three points against St Mirren on Saturday and to drive on from there.

"We are very fortunate in the way the fixtures have panned out for us, we don't have any real travelling to do. It's a bonus and we have to try to capitalise by aiming to win every game. I'm looking for four good performances and four good results."

Collins will be looking to top scorer Chris Killen to help achieve his stated aim, revealing the Kiwi striker was left on the bench because of a lack of fitness.

He said: "Chris hadn't trained until Thursday and had, in fact, missed a lot of training recently. It was tempting to put him on but I thought Steven Fletcher and Abdessalam Benjelloun were doing fairly well.

"Hopefully Chris can get a full week's training under his belt to get his sharpness back and be ready for the Festive period."

Thomson, taken off after falling victim to a lunge from Falkirk's Kenny Milne in the first half, was expected to resume training tomorrow as was Scott Brown who shrugged off a foot injury to play all but the final 11 minutes against Falkirk. Both were in for treatment yesterday although Thomson's immediate readiness is somewhat academic - he is suspended for the visit of St Mirren.

Taken from the Scotsman