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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Euan Parsons

Paul Heckingbottom warns Hibs will take more thumpings unless players show one key quality

Paul Heckingbottom has warned there'll be more hammerings in store at Hibs unless his players toughen up.

The Hibees went down 3-0 to Motherwell before the international break and the manager has blamed the defeat on a lack of character.

A section of fans turned on the Englishman at Fir Park following just one win in four Premiership games.

And Heckingbottom insists he's not afraid to ring the changes as he bids to kick start the club's season.

Speaking ahead of Saturday's trip to Kilmarnock , he said: "It's important to understand why we got beaten.

(SNS Group)

"So with the Motherwell one, it's no good just passing the ball and looking pretty with the ball but in real key moments not standing up, and being poor.

"The goals we conceded were really poor on our part. You can't ignore that and that is the bit we'll be working on to put right over the coming weeks.

"Because unless we put that right, we will be a team that's playing well one week and poor the next. Or results will be like that, regardless of performance.

"So that's the bit we'll be working to put right. We do it on the training pitch or we do it by changing the players in the starting XI."

With the Motherwell defeat in mind, Heckingbottom said he would have liked another game soon afterwards but acknowledged the prolonged break has been beneficial for some of his players.

Hibernian's Ryan Porteous celebrates at full time (SNS Group)

He added: "From a personal point of view, I'd rather have had a game as quickly as possible and got playing.

"But for getting people back - Ryan Porteous has had another 90 minutes away with the (Scotland) Under-21s so things like that have helped.

"But we're here to play football so we're just ready for the game now.

"Everyone's back in today. That's the only difficult thing about international breaks.

"If people are away, you're waiting for them to come back in, so they're not involved in anything tactical before the game."

Heckingbottom said he will check on Vykintas Slivka after the Lithuania midfielder returned from international duty with swelling on his ankle.

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