Murray insists Hibs' pre-January players have much to offer

However, a host of new arrivals in the January transfer window gave Hibs a much-needed freshness which would help propel them away from the bottom of the table.

While Murray admits the introuction of the new faces was imperative in stopping the rot, he insists the fact survivors from the sorry first half of the campaign such as Francis Dickoh, Mark Brown, Paul Hanlon, Derek Riordan, David Wotherspoon, Liam Miller and himself have all featured fairly regularly in the revival of the last few months proves they weren't as "rubbish" as was being made out.

"A team like Hibs shouldn't be bottom six," he conceded. "Maybe once in a blue moon, but not after the good season we had last year.

"At Christmas, we were down and out in terms of confidence. Six points out of six against St Mirren and Kilmarnock gave us a bit of a lift and kicked us on and we gave it a good go at getting into the top six, but we knew a wee while ago that we had probably left ourselves with too much to do.

"People look at the run we went on since January and say it's all down to the new players coming in, which may be the case to an extent.

"But let's face it we couldn't get any worse at that time, so if we'd signed Mickey Mouse it would probably have made us better.

"People are now saying the new players are brilliant and the old players are rubbish but it's swings and roundabouts.

"If we have a bad start to next season, people will start saying 'ah the new players are not good enough' so it's a revolving door until you find the right mix."

Meanwhile, Hibs will play Livingston in a pre-season friendly at the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium on Tuesday, July 5, 7.45pm.