Hibs address Joe Newell and Kieron Bowie situations as St Mirren eye climb up table

The 32-year-old midfielder has not played since last December due to a groin injury but has trained all week and is ready to return, as are Alasana Manneh (hamstring) and Warren O’Hora (shoulder)

Gray, whose side sit third in the table, said of his skipper: “It’s been a long fight for him trying to get fit, it was December the last time he played, so it’s been a long fight for him. I’ve noticed it even in the last couple of weeks in training, having him around, driving the standards and intensity within training.

“I know he’s been out for a long time. There’s an international break coming up and we’ve arranged a bounce game as well, which will be really significant for the likes of him and Alasana, boys that haven’t played as many minutes, to make sure they’re all getting minutes. So the squad is in a good place, physically, which is a positive.”

Hibs striker Kieron Bowie was left out of Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for the 2026 World Cup qualifying double-header against Greece and Denmark. The 23-year-old has not scored in his last eight appearances for Hibs, but Gray believes he will bounce back.

He said: “There’s a lot of improvements to come from Kieron, which is great. And he’s still hungry to do that. If you asked him on a personal level about goal contribution, strikers always want to score goals. But it’s my job to get him in position to try to do that.

“All in all, I think he’s in a good place. Young players don’t always have that consistency at times. He’s fighting against some things, but he’s also providing what we’re asking him to do, which is positive performances and he just needs to keep going and keep seeing that as the end game for him.

“If he keeps playing well, Steve’s already shown that, if he can get to the standards, he’s not far away from the Scotland set-up, which is a brilliant place to be.”

Robinson wants progress up the table

Stephen Robinson encouraged his St Mirren players to revel in their Hampden win – but now expects them to show the focus and determination to improve their league form before they return to the national stadium.

Saints set up a Premier Sports Cup final meeting with Celtic on December 14 when they beat Motherwell 4-1 last Saturday. But Robinson, who twice led Motherwell into cup finals against the Hoops, has quickly set his players new targets ahead of facing Hibs. The Buddies sit eighth in the league after collecting one point from their previous four games.

“The boys had a night out after the game, deservedly so,” Robinson said. “They worked very hard. The cup started a long, long time ago for us so we’ve got through the hard way and the game was closer than the score suggests.

“It was a tough game against a really, really good Motherwell side that we were able to be clinical against. So it was important that they enjoyed the moment. Moments like that don’t come around very often in people’s careers.

“So they’ve done that on the Saturday, but we were back again on the Monday, ready to play, ready to train and they’ve shown a great attitude. This group wants to keep achieving, wants to be a top-six side again for four years in a row.

“We enjoyed the weekend, enjoyed the result and now we’re back to business again. We’ve had to put that to bed. I’ve made very sure that the players are fully focused on the league now.

“We haven’t got the results we wanted. We’ve had good performances and what we showed against Motherwell was, when we’re clinical, we’ll win games of football. We haven’t been clinical enough in the league. So that’s how we turn those good performances into wins and hopefully starting to do that on Saturday.

“Training’s been good, it’s been sharp and now everyone’s playing for a place in the final but ultimately also to make sure we start climbing the table and getting points.”