Kevin Nisbet: Hibs striker reveals Shaun Maloney advice and admits he's had a 'tough spell'

It has been quite an eventful six weeks for Kevin Nisbet but, just when Hibs needed him most, he popped up with an important goal at Gayfield to effectively book the Easter Road side’s passage into the next round, with Chris Mueller’s late effort the gloss on the scoreline, but no less than the Scottish Premiership side deserved.

Nisbet, unlike many of his Hibs team-mates, is no stranger to the Red Lichties’ iconic ground.

“I said that to the boys before the game – I have played here before and it is just an absolute battle,” he admitted afterwards.

“The form we had shown previously and the form Arbroath were on, a lot of people thought they were going to win. We knew if we battled away, played the way we can play then we knew we would get into the next round.

"Arbroath are really good at what they do. They make it horrible but they can play as well. We had to stand up to that, we did, and our quality shone through.

“When we went down 1-0 it wasn’t ideal but we knew if we kept battling away and playing the way we were then we could create chances and score goals. It was important we scored three goals as well because we haven’t scored a lot lately so we are buzzing.”

Hibs last scored three goals at Tannadice on Boxing Day, when Nisbet scored the first in a 3-1 victory that, coincidentally, featured a goal from a wingback and a late third added by a substitute winger.

Was the victory in Angus a sign that some of Shaun Maloney’s ideas are coming to fruition?

“When a new manager comes in then it is a totally different style of play. It will take time but it is starting to click now and people are starting to get it tactically, and how we play the game and hopefully we can take that into Ross County.

“We have seven games to