Source: Team_Talk
Hughes expects more from Hibs
The Rugby Park side went ahead early in a thrilling second half on Saturday when home striker Mark Burchill cashed in on an error by goalkeeper Yves Ma-Kalalmbay, only for Anthony Stokes to equalise within five minutes following a quickly-taken Colin Nish free kick.[LNB]It extended the Edinburgh team's unbeaten SPL run to 11 games, but their manager believes they can improve their away form of two wins and four draws in their seven matches to date away from Easter Road.[LNB]He said: "I felt that we gave enough to pick up the three points - we passed the ball enough, stretched them and had some good performances - but possibly a draw was a fair result.[LNB]"I'm disappointed in the goal that we lost but I felt that we showed spirit and a bit of character to come back from that, and this is a difficult place to come and Kilmarnock are a hard team to play against.[LNB]"Colin Nish [who took the free kick leading to the goal] has been our best player for the past month by far - he's grasped exactly what we're looking for and has applied it.[LNB]"It was a great bit of ingenuity to put the free kick in quickly and Anthony Stokes, with possibly his only chance, stuck it in the back of the net; that's why we brought him here.[LNB]"The only thing, if I'm really critical, is possibly our final pass in the last quarter of the pitch, especially in the first half today; we just need to sharpen up our passing and do it a little bit quicker.[LNB]"I still think we've got more to come, especially away from home; we'll soon find out what happens over the Christmas period as we have a few away games starting with a hard one at Aberdeen next week.[LNB]Kilmarnock counterpart Jim Jefferies and his players were left to rue the momentary lapse of concentration at the free kick which led to Hibs' equaliser, so soon after they had forged ahead.[LNB]Jefferies praised his second-bottom team's showing in a "great game", but admitted he was relieved to see an injury-time strike from Hibs' Derek Riordan rebound off the crossbar.[LNB]The Rugby Park manager said: "We were standing arguing [about the free kick award] instead of getting on the ball.[LNB]"We keep drumming into them in that situation to get on the ball and don't let them take it quickly, and after it was taken our two centre-halves were in dreamland.[LNB]"Both of them, especially Simon Ford, played extremely well but that lapse of concentration never really gave them a chance to recover. It was a problem in the middle of the park in allowing the free kick to be taken quickly.[LNB]"It was a cracking game. It was pretty much end-to-end stuff for a spell and as the game wore on the crowd and the atmosphere were great.[LNB]"I thought we made their goalkeeper work, and he made more saves in the first half than Mark Brown[LNB]"Both teams tried to get the ball down, pass it and play; I can see why Hibs are doing so well as they have some good players.[LNB]"When Riordan hit that one at the end, I thought, 'Here we go again', because he's capable of doing that, but that would have been a real travesty.[LNB]"We showed we're not that bad a side and you can't ask for any more - they gave everything try to play the right way."[LNB][LNB]
