Hibs players laid down Celtic challenge ahead of big week

Hibs, with four wins in their last six matches, have a chance to steal a march on all of their rivals when they visit Motherwell on Tuesday in the only William Hill Premiership game this midweek.

Victory at Fir Park would take Gray’s side within a point of defending champions Celtic, whom they host on Sunday.

“We’re the only fixture tomorrow night so it gives us that opportunity,” said the Hibs manager. “It’ll be a difficult one, but if you can go and win the game tomorrow and then off the back of that, you’re playing against the team directly above you at the minute, so if you go and get six points, you could go above them.

“The flip side to that is we’ll be the only team to have played 14 games (after the Motherwell game), so if you don’t take advantage of that, then there’s different ways you can look at it. It is about making sure that we’re doing the right things and we keep progressing and we keep looking at setting these small targets all the time.

“Because I do feel this round of fixtures now is an opportunity for this group of players to try and stamp their authority on the league. And we’re certainly starting to go in the right direction.”

Could Hibs make it a four-way title race?

A win at Motherwell would also move Hibs within six points of their table-topping city rivals Hearts, who have won only one of their last four matches, and former Scotland international Pat Nevin suggested last week the Premiership could become “a four-way title race” between Rangers, Celtic, Hearts and Hibs.

“We’ve got a chance tomorrow night to take another three points closer to where we want to get to,” said Gray. “And that’s all we’re thinking about. We don’t need to be looking at what other teams are doing at this stage. There’s a lot of football still to be played. We’ve still to play Hearts three times, Rangers three times, Celtic three times potentially.”

Hibs’ only definite absentees for the visit to Motherwell are Josh Campbell and Rudi Molotnikov, with Miguel Chaiwa and Alasana Manneh back in contention and captain Joe Newell having returned to the squad as an unused substitute in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Dundee after being sidelined since last December.

“It’s great to have Joe back in the squad,” said Gray. “Even just his voice before the game and during the game, I can hear him on the bench. The next bit is he’ll want minutes clearly. He’s got competition to get back into the team, but one thing Joe does is he trains properly, pushes and drives the standards all the time.

“He wants the team to be successful and he’ll do everything he can when he gets his opportunity to make sure he takes it.”