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Hibs welcome Kilmarnock to Easter Road tomorrow in what is becoming a must-win for the Hibees with the international break coming up.

We have lost late goals in 4 matches this season, turning a draw into a loss and wins into draws which have cost us points, points which have potentially dropped us 4 places in the table. In some of the games, circumstances have conspired against us, but in others we have been the authors of our own misfortune. Nick Montgomery has a mammoth task in front of him, perhaps more than he realised.

Derek McInnes will not be most popular person inside Easter Road on Saturday, so let's make his visit as difficult as possible by sending him away without any gifts or points. Our recent form against Kilmarnock is pretty good, but statistics mean nothing unless backed up with positive performances.

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Monty on the game
“We’re looking forward to putting on a good performance tomorrow against a well-organised, direct, physical team. We played well against them last time but dropped two points. We want to learn from that and look forward to the game. Call it street smart, game management or just seeing the game out. Sometimes in those moments decision making has been wrong, and we know in football you can be sucker punched, and we’ve had that a few times.
It’s been positive the last few days knowing this is a good opportunity to get a good result in front of our home fans.”

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Monty on the fans and the game
“The fans today were fantastic, they really got behind the team and I want to say thank you to them. They were fantastic at Hampden when we were unfortunate to get into the final, so that one was for them.
Kilmarnock are a direct team, so they’re going to put balls into the box from wide areas; that’s their game plan. If you don’t deal with them or second balls, then you’re going to be in trouble. We made first contact on those deliveries, had everyone sprinting back and making sure we were clearing the ball on the second phase. On the counter-attack we could’ve killed the game off, but it wouldn’t sit with us; the final pass, touch, or people slipping over. It was a good performance, three points, a clean sheet and we move forward.”

Overall we seem to have been fairly ordinary, but in control for most of the game. A clean sheet is most welcome, as is an improved defensive display, but the concerns about playing out from the back are still there. Jair Tavares is developing into an excellent player.