Stevie Mallan: Hibs know that wins need to come quickly

The Easter Road outfit’s winless run extended to eight matches after they were held to a draw by Hamilton, the fifth time in their last seven games they’ve surrendered a lead, on this occasion Mallan conceding a penalty converted by Accies’ Ross Cunningham to cancel out his earlier strike.

It was a result which left the Capital side just three points off bottom place but, insisted Mallan, he and his team-mates only have themselves to blame, again squandering chances to have put the match beyond Brian Rice’s team.

Now, with home games against Ross County and Livingston to come before the next international break, the former St Mirren and Barnsley midfielder is hoping Paul Heckingbottom’s side can trigger a run of positive results.

He said: “The magnitude and the size of this club, we should definitely not be down there, but we only have ourselves to blame throughout the squad. We should be doing a lot better, coming to Hamilton away and winning at many places in this league.

“We have to start getting the points on the board and it has to happen soon. It’s only wins that are going to take us up the league. The only good thing we have is that the league is tight from where we are to third or fourth, so a couple of wins shoots you back up.

“We have a decent run of games coming up that we can hopefully approach on the front foot and start climbing the table.”

Mallan admitted having not won since the opening day of the league season could threaten to take a toll on morale but, he claimed, one win could easily be the turning point.

He said: “I think at any team confidence might be in question, but the boys are training well, it’s just the goals that are lacking. Against Hamilton we could have had three, four, five.

“We can go on a run, the manager is saying that. We’re just waiting for one game where we go ‘boom’ and destroy a team and obviously that has not happened. But I feel it is coming and it’s that one game going forward that takes spirits and the team higher.”

Mallan reiterated that everyone at Easter Road is working towards that day, saying: “It’s the little things, you keep your standards high and don’t slack off and with the manager and staff we have they’ll never let you slip or be lackadaisical on training ground.

“Everything is at a very high standard because if you slip you are out of the team. Obviously right now we are on a bad run of form, but everyone is fighting for a place in the team, training and standards are high, you have to keep it that way to keep morale high and squad together.

“It’s when you need everybody, players, those that are not playing to push people forward.”