Lee Johnson has challenged his Hibs stars to show 'grit and determination' as they bid to return to winning ways at Kilmarnock.
The Easter Road side have been on a poor run of late with the midweek loss to Ross County in the capital a fifth defeat in six league games. The ambition for the club is to be playing European football next season so they know the importance of bouncing back, starting with the weekend trip to Rugby Park.
Despite the poor run of form, the Hibees are just two points behind Aberdeen in third - having played a game more - and boss Johnson is determined to get a reaction out of his players before the Premiership shuts down for the World Cup. He told Hibs' official website: “That is the most important thing for us is we need to pick the players up. You have to show support, you have to show that we believe in them – which we do.
READ MORE: Lee Johnson apologises to Hibs support after 'nowhere near good enough' Ross County defeat
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“They have to understand why they are in the team, why they are at the club and what they bring to the squad.
"We want to see grit and determination. That can come across on the pitch in a number of ways; winning your tackles, winning your headers and winning your individual battles. It is also about having the mental strength and capability to go and produce our best actions when it matters most.
“The last action is always the most important one, in any move. So there is a big focus on that. We’ve got a point to prove, when you go to these places, you need to be solid and go back to basis – that should be the foundation of our performance.
“It will be a difficult challenge as all the games are in this league. To be honest, our challenge is on ourselves. We need to focus on ourselves, what we can do better; what we do well and make sure we implement that to the best of our ability.
“The opposition almost becomes irrelevant in that sense – they will try and play their style and win the game but we will be making sure we do the basics extremely well which will give us a platform to be creative in the final third.”
Hibs will be without Martin Boyle, Harry McKirdy, Aiden McGeady and Kevin Nisbet for the clash as Johnson provided an update on Demetri Mitchell and Kyle Magennis.
He added: “Demetri came off with a bit of a calf issue [on Tuesday] and a bit of a fitness issue as well as he wasn’t at 100%.
“Kyle Magennis has had a very slight hamstring strain, which we got the scan results back today. So he is likely to be 1-2 weeks off his feet with that.”
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