Pat Fenlon is thinking of making his phone number ex-directory before the January transfer window opens. The Hibs manager fully expects calls about the availability of his players after their good start to the SPL season. Yesterday's A 2-1 win over St Mirren, thanks to two goals scored by Leigh Griffiths, who is in his second loan spell at Easter Road from Wolves, took Hibs to the top of the SPL. Hibs would need to fend off admirers if they are to stay near the top. Hibs have been known to let players go if the price is right, at the expense of being a team to challenge for honours. Fenlon knows he will be expected to find replacements if players move on. He said: "People will look and see where we are at the moment and think we may have one or two decent players and they need to watch us. That's part of management. We've brought these players into the club and if we lose them then we've got to try to find replacements for them. That's my job. He (Griffiths) is a special talent at the moment, that's for certain." Griffiths has scored 11 league goals this season, with some calling for his name to be included in the national squad for the game against Luxembourg to be announced on Tuesday, whether Craig Levein is manager or not. Griffiths joined Wolves on a two-and-a-half year deal from Dundee in January 2011 and is free to talk to interested parties from the turn of the year, when his current loan agreement at Hibs is also due to end. Fenlon is keen to retain Griffiths services, as well as defender Ryan McGivern and midfielder Jorge Claros, who are on loan from Manchester City and Motagua in Honduras, respectively. Although Griffiths will receive the plaudits, and rightly so, according to Fenlon, the manager felt is was a team effort which saw the three points stay at Easter Road. Goalkeeper Ben Williams made three fine saves to thwart the visitors; captain James McPake at centre-back and the creative duo of David Wotherspoon and Paul Cairney on the flanks all played their parts in the win that too them to the top of the SPL. The side looks transformed from those playing in green and white at the William Hill Scottish Cup final in May. Captain McPake lauded Griffiths, while also spreading the praise. The Northern Ireland international said: "Winning when you don't play particularly well is good. We'd rather play well and win but when you've got somebody like Leigh Griffiths in your team you're always going to have a chance. He gets a lot of help from Eoin Doyle, who has been fantastic. The two of them work well together so he's due a lot of credit for the way Leigh's playing. He was hurting last season when Hibs were doing bad. He's a die-hard Hibs fan. A few people have had a quiet word with him and told him to let his goals do the talking; that's what he's doing." St Mirren's Kenny McLean is another young player deserving of praise and it was he who put Saints in front before Griffiths hit back twice. Of Griffiths, McLean said: "If you give him that kind of space and those chances he's always going to put them away." Saints' hopes of mounting a comeback were hit when captain Jim Goodwin was sent off for a second bookable offence and they have now lost four straight games in the SPL. Next weekend sees St Mirren host Aberdeen, a side they beat on penalties to make it to the Scottish Communities League Cup semi-finals last Tuesday. McLean added: "We'll be more than confident. We got a good result in the cup to take us to the semi-final. We need to pick ourselves up. We need to do better in the league."
Source: ScottishFitba
Source: FOOTYMAD
