Is Deek about to Follow Murrays lead

[Greenman]

Hibernian will lose star striker Derek Riordan for nothing if they fail to improve their contract offer or find a buyer.

The Easter Road club are listening to bids after discussions with the 22-year-old and his agent broke down.

The Scotland Under-21 international, who was promoted to the full national squad after hitting 23 goals last season, said he was "hurt" at being slapped on the transfer list.

But Riordan is quite happy to see out his contract, which has 14 months left to run, with his beloved club unless they reopen contract negotiations or a big offer is forthcoming.

Fortunately for Mowbray he has another young striker determined to build on his past success this coming season.

His hat-trick sent Hibernian on the way to a 5-0 win over St Patrick's Athletic in their second tour match in Ireland with Sam Morrow and Dean Shiels also finding the target.

Preparations are going well for the new campaign but Stephen Glass admits that it will be tougher this time because teams will be looking to bring them down to size.

Hibernian finished third in the Bank of Scotland Premier League which won them a place in the UEFA Cup.

But the midfielder said: "We started slowly last season before we picked up a couple of wins and things began to snowball but we deserved to finish third.

"Possibly we'll be more of a scalp this time. Teams will be looking out for us and there are a lot of sides with an ambition to finish third."

But the former Aberdeen, Newcastle United and Watford player has warned his team-mates that whoever begins the new season in the starting 11 will have to keep their performances at the top level or risk being dropped.

He added: "I managed to play almost every game last season and only missed a couple of matches with a broken wrist.

"Whoever starts the new season has got to do well or they won't be playing and hopefully there will be enough of us doing well that we'll keep winning matches."

[ECKtheHIBEE]

Nothing we didnt know already really......makes me feel sick tho