Jack Ross has cautioned his Hibernian players against looking too far up the Scottish Premiership table after starting to arrest their slide in form with victory over Dundee United.
The Easter Road side moved to within six points of misfiring Celtic in second after goals from Darren McGregor and Martin Boyle secured all three points from Tannadice
Hibs head into Tuesday night's trip to St Mirren, who beat the Hoops 2-1 at Parkhead on Saturday, sitting in fourth place while Aberdeen in third go to fifth-placed Livingston before the men in green and white face the Dons this weekend.
Celtic have won only one of their last six league games to slip 23 points behind leaders Rangers and, although they have two games in hand on both their Old Firm rivals and the men from Edinburgh, they are increasingly looking over their shoulder rather than upwards.
However, asked if second place was a realistic target, Hibs boss Ross said: "We've had our own internal targets that we've set very clearly from pre-season, so I don't think we would veer too much away from that when we've been pretty consistent and steady on those goals.
"We've set them fairly lofty, but the players are focused toward achieving them and know that we'll reward them should we get there, so I don't think finding themselves in this position with the way the points are between second, third, fourth and fifth has made any significant difference."
That said, Ross admitted that an improved run of form leading up to the split in the league – his side had won only once since Boxing Day before Saturday's 2-0 victory at Dundee United – coupled with Celtic's ongoing problems could put Hibs in position to attack.
He said: "In terms of how realistic it is, I think it's still a big challenge for every club because of the resources of the top two.
"It's not something we have spoken about, but everybody knows that if you continue to accumulate points positively between now and even the split, then we would go into that in a really competitive position."
