Christian Doidge in Hibs goals vow as striker admits Kevin Nisbet KO has left him gutted

Christian Doidge insists he’s up for the challenge of solving Hibs goalscoring woes in the absence of crocked Kevin Nisbet.

The Welsh hitman hasn’t netted since August in a season which has been blighted by injury and covid issues.

But he was thrown in for Wednesday’s goalless draw at Dundee - the Hibees’ seventh blank in their last nine league games - and is likely to keep the position for Saturday’s home clash with St Johnstone.

Nisbet has been ruled out for the rest of the season after damaging knee ligaments in Sunday’s goalless draw with Celtic.

And Doidge said: “I’m gutted for Kevin, he’s a massive player for us.

“He has been great since he came in so it is really disappointing for him but I am sure he is going to come back stronger.

“I’ll be getting a few more minutes now so hopefully I can lead the line for the lads.

“We have to keep creating chances and hope that us front lads score some goals.

“We are doing the right things at the moment, we are keeping it tight at the back so it is now just down to the front lads to create some more chances and put the ball in the back of the net."

Hibs sit fifth in the Premiership ’s heavily congested race for Europe after the midweek draw at Dens which saw them play the last 32 minutes with 10 men after Rocky Bushiri was red carded.

While Doidge accepts Shaun Maloney ’s side need to be better in front of goal he insists a third consecutive clean sheet gives hope that they can grab a Euro spot come May.

He told HibsTV: “We feel we should have won the game.

“Obviously we made it a bit harder with Rocky getting sent off. But we still got in good positions to go and win the game. Towards the end we had to defend well and fight and the lads did that.

“We really wanted to