Hughes looks to emulate home form

Hibernian manager John Hughes has challenged his players to match their Easter Road form away from home.

Hibs stayed two points off Clydesdale Bank Premier League leaders Celtic when they turned on an impressive display to beat Motherwell 2-0 at Easter Road last Saturday. Hibs have won more home games than any other team in the SPL but they go to Kilmarnock on Saturday aiming for only their third away victory.

"I don't think we've been great away from home this season, I have to say that because it is a concern of mine," Hughes told HibernianTV. "We played well at Ibrox and also at Motherwell away, that apart we have not been at our best away from Easter Road so we need to get that right."

Hughes rates the 1-1 draw against Rangers in Govan as their best display of the season but he was delighted with the workrate shown in their second victory against Jim Gannon`s Motherwell.

"We were looking at the match stats on Monday and Liam Miller's came up as a 90% completed passing rate," Hughes said.

"They showed that, while he received the ball over 60 times, over 20 of these was through him winning the ball back for us.

"That is because he just goes hunting the ball. It's what we had to do on Saturday - we had to press Motherwell from the front."

Hughes will be reunited with his former Falkirk management team of Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown at Rugby Park.

Kilmarnock eased away from the Bairns at the foot of the SPL with a 1-0 victory over St Johnstone on Saturday and Hughes knows the Ayrshire side will be desperate to build on that victory.

"There are few harder places to go than Kilmarnock and against two coaches that I have so much respect for," he said. "Having played for these guys, I know the standards that they set. They might not have been winning many games recently but they had a win on Saturday and that will certainly given them confidence."