Watch Hearts vs Hibernian on Thursday, live on Sky Sports Football; Kick-off at 12.30pm
Thursday 26 December 2019 11:41, UK
Hibernian head coach Jack Ross says his side will be taking nothing for granted when they meet bottom club Hearts in the Edinburgh derby on Boxing Day.
Hearts are three points adrift at the foot of the Scottish Premiership having won only two games all season.
They have also lost all three games since Daniel Stendel replaced Craig Levein at the beginning of December.
Hibs are 12 points better off in seventh place but have only won once in their last five matches.
"It's difficult to judge in these type of matches because it's clichéd but often form does go out of the window to an extent in derby fixtures," Ross, who succeeded Paul Heckingbottom last month, told Sky Sports News.
"They have a huge need at the moment for points to get themselves out of a difficult position.
"We were probably in a not so dissimilar position not so long ago and you can see the difference that a positive set of results have made, they've taken us further up the table.
"But I don't think their want for points is any greater than ours.
"We want to make sure we finish this part of the season before the break with two wins because if we do that it will mean it's been an okay first half of the season for us and we've put ourselves in a more positive position for the period after the break.
Hibs are looking to bounce back from successive defeats to Rangers and Celtic in the last week but Ross is confident he has inherited a squad that is good enough to make progress up the table in the second half of the campaign.
"I think particularly on Friday night [against Rangers] we didn't play well. The game at Parkhead I think we did okay," he added.
"So there is a balance between making sure we don't discount the things we didn't do well on Friday evening but equally reminding the players that over the last six weeks since I came in to the job they've been good.
"There have a lot of positive performances and results in amongst that so it's just making sure they don't forget that and take that into tomorrow's match."
"I think they're a good group. I have been fortunate in that I haven't felt that I've come into a group that's not low in morale in any way.
"There are some good characters within the group so they've been relatively easy to work with.
"I think they understand that if they do the fundamentals of the game well they have enough quality to enable them to wins games and hopefully continue this climb up the table."
