David Marshall demands strong Hibernian response to setback against Rangers

David Marshall has called on Hibernian to prove they are a team heading in the right direction by bouncing back strongly from Wednesday’s setback against Rangers.

The Easter Road side took an early lead against Michael Beale’s men but then collapsed to a 4-1 defeat as their seven-game unbeaten run in the cinch Premiership came shuddering to a halt.

Hibs are fourth in the table but, with a trip to Celtic next, they still have plenty work to do in order to ensure they secure their top-six place, with Aberdeen, Livingston and St Mirren all in close pursuit.

“We need to not let this affect us too much,” said goalkeeper Marshall. “We’ve got five games before the split, which is almost like a mini run-in.

“There’s not a lot of points separating us from Livingston, St Mirren and Aberdeen. Everybody’s getting close so we need to put ourselves in a good position for the post-split fixtures.

“We play Celtic next, then we don’t play again until April (because of the international break) so it’s a bit of a strange time.

“We’ve picked a tough game to get back on the horse at Parkhead, but we’re getting better and we won’t be lacking confidence.

“We were disappointed with a lot of our performance against Rangers but we’re certainly in a better place now than we were a few months ago .

“I’m sure we’ve got enough about us to have a good end to the season.”

Hibs paid tribute to their late owner Ron Gordon, who died last month, with a rousing pre-match rendition of The Proclaimers’ song ‘Sunshine on Leith’.

“I’ve been in some atmospheres in my career but that was pretty special,” said Marshall. “We were held back until halfway through the song and I had a little mascot with me who was saying he was pretty scared of the noise walking out but then he burst into song in the tunnel.

“It was a pretty special tribute. I think the fans certainly did Ron’s family proud.

“It certainly inspired the players. We were all excited for the first 10 minutes and when the first goal went in we kind of thought it was written in the stars but unfortunately it was not to be.”