Championship joy for former Celtic duo

Former Celts had a field day in the Championship as Alan Stubbs and Mark Burchill dominated the headlines.

After holding out during the Scott Allan saga Stubbs has steered Hibs to 14 wins in their last 15 matches to draw level with the Ibrox side at the top of the table.

A 1-0 win away to Alloa is unlikely to feature strongly in an end of season review but with Sevco slipping up at Livingston today’s win cranks up the pressure with Hibs clearly the form side.

“We knew it was going to be a difficult game, but the most important thing is that we won 1-0,” Stubbs admitted. “You look at teams who are looking to win leagues and they have to go away, they have to roll their sleeves up and they have to win games by sometimes a scruffy 1-0, by sometimes a comfortable 4-0.

“You have to be able to be adaptable to each game, because they are all very different on their own merits,  today was one of them.”

Last month at Ibrox Burchill’s side were slated as they lost 1-0 in the semi-final of the Petrofac Training Cup but the former Celtic striker refused to be intimidated or change his ways.

After a summer rebuilding his squad after last season’s great escape Burchill believes that his side are capable of finishing in the top half of the division.

“What you’ve seen is we’re a very good side,” the Livi boss said. “We shouldn’t be where we are. We’ve been really unlucky at times but we’re starting to build something.

“The players are listening and learning and getting better all the time. You’ve got to remember there were eight new players from last season in the starting eleven today, so we’re getting there.

“I firmly believe we’re a mid-table team at worst and that’s where we’re going to end up.”

He added: “The guys played very, very well. We didn’t allow them to have too many opportunities at goal and what they did have, we put a lot of pressure on the ball.

“Tactically the players were fantastic, that was the big thing. We’ve been playing really well against the big teams and I said during the week we’re going to get points off them.

“I expected to get something and I’m disappointed at the end because I thought we could have nicked it – we might have had a penalty and we nearly got in at the back post, but I’m sure Rangers will think they should have won it as well.”

In the next round of Championship fixtures Livi visit Falkirk while Hibs go to Morton on December 5.