Head coach David Gray spoke to the media ahead of Hibs vs Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership - here's everything he had to say.

After the positive aspects of the performance last week, do you feel like the team is continuing to build up going into this weekend?

"Definitely. I think you've seen that in the level of performances in the last three or four weeks. Definite progression every week. Results still aren't where they need to be. There's loads of positives at Ibrox, a difficult place to go, but we still lost the game. So we need to still improve in certain areas. Our full focus has been on Motherwell this week to try and replicate at least that level of performance and make sure we can be even stronger in this game."

You created chances at Ibrox, does the team need to develop a ruthless streak?

Yeah, we definitely know that. We've created many chances at Ibrox. It doesn't happen very often, as well. You have to take them when you do get them, especially places like that. And I think just that clinical nature, we do need to improve. I would be much more concerned if we weren't creating them at all. But it's definitely an area we know we need to improve in, and we're working hard to do that."

Does that come with the players gelling together a lot more? Are they more comfortable as a group now?

"Yeah, it definitely helps. Training every day. I think also just confidence in general. You've seen that in the games going by, especially the second half against St. Johnstone. Once we got the goal, you sort of seen the players relax a little bit and I thought the level of performance went up. Players started to be a bit more free-flowing. And I think we took that into the Rangers game, too. There's a lot of positive performances (and we need to make sure we start the game with that same mindset and same application, and on the front foot, full of confidence, trying to create as many chances as we can." 

Is it a delicate thing as a head coach when results aren't there, maintaining confidence and letting players know there's things you like, but not brushing over the fact points need to come?

"Yeah, I think so. That was definitely the challenge straight after the game. The mixed emotions because I hate losing, first and foremost. That's the biggest challenge is when you lose the game. And I've said it many times about trying to stay measured in regardless of the result. You can pick the bones, the good bits and the bad bits. After the game, it was hard to be too critical with the amount of effort put in, the chances we had, and how the game went.

"Once you watch the game back and take the emotion out of it, again, the areas in which we can improve you've already highlighted there, which was just being clinical in the final third. But in terms of where the groups are and how the training has been this week, I'm really looking forward to the weekend now and everyone else have trained really well. And we need to make sure that that's not just because you've went to Ibrox and you can raise your game for that. That's just the standard that we need to take into Motherwell at the weekend. They are a team that are doing really well. They're well organised, well coached, and it'll be a real tough test again this week. So that's been our focus, to make sure that there's zero complacency and it's all about what we can do."

Martin Boyle's not made the Australian squad, is that to do with his hand?

"Yeah, he's not trained at all. So he's had his operation on his wrist and that's all went well. And he's getting back, he's progressing all the time, but he's not  trained or played really, so since he's had the last camp with Australia, so no surprise he's not been selected." 

Do you expect to see him back for the first game after the international break?

"Yeah, he's getting better all the time. We're not going to take a risk on him - for example, if he was to fall on it - but I fully expect him to be back in days rather than weeks, which is great." 

Is Joe Newell back in contention for the weekend?

Yeah, back in contention. He's trained all week, which is great for him. Nicky Cadden is the same, no players carrying a few knocks. Luke Amos was carrying knocks, but we've had a strong training week this week. But every single day we're monitoring them and managing it because they've not participated in every single aspect of it and it's just been every day working out and how they recover after that and we'll just see where we are tomorrow."

Does having Joe back give you a headache considering how well Kwon and Nectar have done?

It's not just with Joe coming back. There will have been players disappointed not to play at the weekend. Even players I was able to bring on at the weekend, Dylan Levitt and Nathan Moriah-Welsh, we've got competition everywhere. I've said that for a number of weeks now and it's a headache that I want to have. It's also really healthy for the squad as long as everyone's pushing in the right direction all together, it creates a real competitive environment."

Kwon was called up to the South Korea national team, how impressed have you been with him?

"Yeah, he's been excellent. It's exactly what we expected from him. He did really well on loan last season and I think just you've seen him getting stronger, getting fitter in the way we're training, the way we work and the way he's starting to get the ideas of what we want him to do.

"I think he's done really well and I think that's credit to the squad and the club for him to go and get international recognition. When you come to a club like this, it does give the players who haven't had a call up yet the chance if they are performing on the big stage, especially at Ibrox at the weekend, for example. That this is an opportunity to try and push into your national team and we've seen many players who haven't had cap come here and go on to develop that. So it's a real credit to everyone involved."

Motherwell have had a strong start but are these games you have to start winning if you're going to get back into the top six, or better, this season?

"100%. Listen, you see the league already, everyone can beat everyone. We know we need to be at the top of our game to beat anyone in this league. But we also know we're a very good team and if we do play to that level, we're very hard to beat. So I fully expect us to have a tough game at the weekend. As you say, they're in good running form but we need to be making sure that we do everything we possibly can. These are the games where you need to try and make your home record as good as possible. We've got an opportunity to try and improve that at the weekend."

It is a really volatile league this season - you're five points from fourth and three points from bottom, does that concern you, or does it present opportunity?

"That's just the nature of this league. I think it's always the same. I've been in it long enough now and understand that. As I've just touched on there, if you drop your standard at all, anyone can beat anyone. We know that.

The players are wary of that. We're very focused on this weekend, obviously, but when you look at the fixtures that lie ahead of us, it's now an opportunity for us to build on our last home performance against St Johnstone, which was a positive result, and make sure we start climbing the league. We know the performances are getting better every week but the results are the most important thing. So that's the thing we need to focus on the most."

What did you make of Dwight Gayle's debut?

"I thought he was good. He was extremely unlucky not to score. Even the small things like when long throw that comes in, he gambles at the near post. He just has that experience and instinct around the boxes. It's great to be able to bring someone like that on. The chance he has, he almost does too well in that situation. He's a bit frustrated with himself but the fact he was in there, he's a great asset to have to be able to bring off the bench but not only that, he's pushing towards trying to get starts.. He's definitely improved the group, not just with his ability but just how he is around the place, which is good for everyone."

How important that you told Marvin you had faith in him after St Mirren?

“I think he's the best person to ask that question. I've been there a million times when you make mistakes, nobody does it on purpose. One thing I've been quite consistent with is from a defensive point of view, a lot of the mistakes were self-inflicted mistakes. It wasn't as if it was a structural thing. We were, as a unit, really poor. It was individual errors and we were getting punished for them all the time. I've not lost any faith in any of them as defenders, why they were brought to the club and their ability to defend the box, especially Marv.

"You've seen that on numerous occasions, how well he does defend the box. We know we had to cut out the mistakes but the last thing you want to do is take someone straight back out of the team who's just joined the club and demoralise people from that point of view, but at the same time understand that there is players ready and waiting to go as well. So it's about that, putting trust in the players, making sure they know exactly what's expected of them but also giving them the confidence to be able to perform because that's where they get judged at the end of the day."

How do you react to the adjustment he's had to do, getting to grips with Scottish football? 

“Definitely, I think I've seen that a lot. I've been here 10 years now, when players come up from down south, even if you ask Joe Newell, I'm pretty sure he would say the same. Christian Doidge when he first joined the club, it can take a bit of time and I think there is an expectation of not really knowing what the Scottish game is about. When you're down south - and I've played down there - you get caught up in what you're doing, and up in Scotland it's all Rangers and Celtic until you actually come up, experience it and understand the demands and the expectation of a club like Hibs - the challenges that come and the standard itself. One week you've got Celtic, a team playing in the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund. You need to be able to come up and test yourself against that and then the challenge quickly changes to where all the pressure and expectation is on you to win.

"Getting to grips with that is something the players are starting to develop now, which is good, from playing more games. But I also think you've seen playing Celtic as early as they did back-to-back probably knocked a bit of confidence in certain individuals and as a group we've probably knocked a bit of confidence, but I think there was a big improvement going into Ibrox. And then even just to credit the group for the games as well, against Celtic we twice went down 2-0 down after 20 minutes, but stayed in the game the whole time. It would've been very easy to buckle in that situation. At Ibrox we go a goal down, haven't done so well in the game, missed the penalty, but then still stay in the game and then push on. I believe we still should have got something out of the game, minimum a point, so it shows we are developing, we are improving all the time and that comes from the experience of playing in the league, definitely."

Those games might knock confidence but can they also provide a benchmark, a standard to aspire to?

“100%, It's easy a coach to stand and say 'we need to do this', and you can try and prepare the players for what to expect, but there's no better feeling than actually playing in the games, experiencing it and understanding when we are good and  what was good about it. I think you've seen that at the weekend there, as the game got stronger we got stronger, which is great and also now the expectation. When you look at it, we've now played Rangers away, we've now played Celtic away, the rest of the league, you've had a look at most teams now, so let's make sure we start concentrating  and turning these performances into results and I think that's what we need to do, that's what the full focus has been on."

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Kwon and Nectar, what have they brought as a pair in midfield? Do they offer good balance in that area?

“Yeah, I think they've done really well. They're part of two very positive performances. But it's not just that, when you look at the full shape in general, the two in the middle of the pitch have definitely helped from a stability point of view, but also your back four needs to be really solid because of the two in front of you and the communication from behind and that starts right from the goalkeeper. But then if you look at it from the top end of the pitch, the work that Myko and Josh Campbell have done, for example, at the weekend, massively helps the two in the middle of the pitch and then the wide players, Junior and Chris Cadden when they were on, being really narrow and affecting the unit altogether, it's more that collective rather than any individual that's doing it. So credit to the players for carrying out the instruction, but one thing I have been clear as well is that they're good football players, and when you have got the ball you need to trust your ability. That's something that I've already touched on when you said about Joe Newell coming back to add to the group, Martin Boyle's not in that squad, Kieran Bowie's not in that squad, there's a lot of strength and depth here and it's something that we're excited about. But know we need to pick up the results to give us the opportunity to really push on."