An exasperated David Gray bemoaned his players repeating mistakes in the aftermath of a second defeat to Celtic in successive matches, and it’s no wonder Hibs’ head coach is doing whatever would be the equivalent of tearing his hair out.

Another early goal lost, more defensive lapses and a comical kamikaze concession of a third goal saw Hibs exit the Premier Sports Cup in Glasgow. That goal will haunt Gray as it killed any lingering hopes that Hibs had of pulling Celtic back to level terms having worked our way back into a match that had looked like another game Celtic would win at a canter.

A stunning header from Mykola Kuharevich from Martin Boyle’s free-kick gave us an unlikely route back into the game, and the lift from that goal gave the players the impetus to compete with, rather than succumb to, their hosts.

If Gray is to take any positives from the game, it will be from that period between Mykola’s goal, and the loss of Celtic’s third. In that time, Hibs carved out the odd chance, forcing Kasper Schmeichel into his first save of the season in the process. In that spell, Hibs showed bravery to get on the ball and get at Celtic, and Gray will be looking for much more of this from his players as the season evolves.

Any positives will be overshadowed by the defensive mistakes that have dogged Hibs since the league season started. The third goal was a catalogue of errors, and despite Gray warning that one mistake can’t become two last week, that’s exactly what happened with neither Marvin Ekpiteta or Jacob Bursik covering themselves in glory with their roles in it.

Ekpiteta has not had a stellar start to his Hibs career, with a hand in several of the goals we’ve conceded so far, but despite the mistakes there have been signs that he has the attributes to do well at the club providing we play to his strengths.

We are undoubtedly yet to see the best of Hibs this season, despite some good performances in the group stage of the Premier Sports Cup, the real test of the team is against top flight opposition, and other than a decent first half against St Mirren, and flashes of good play in the double header against Celtic, Hibs have been disappointing.

Despite making nine signings so far this season, a combination of injury, lack of match sharpness, and, in the case of Kwon Hyeok-kyu, ineligibility due to our opponents, Gray is yet to see the benefit of what has turned out to be a significant rebuild of his side.

Saturday sees us another step closer to seeing the best version of this side when we welcome Dundee for what is shaping up to be a mouth-watering game. Dundee are flying at the moment, and having fired six past Airdrie at the weekend, they will be arriving at Easter Road full of confidence.

This may well suit us, though. There is little risk that the players will show any complacency on Saturday. It’s far from a given that Hibs will win on Saturday, we need to be at our best to take anything from the game. Gray has talked about not continuing to pick players who are making mistakes, and he might use Saturday to make changes, or see how his players respond to that message by giving them a final chance to show that they deserve a starting jersey.

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With Kwon available, I suspect he’ll come straight into the starting eleven and that will hopefully relieve some of the burden on Joe Newell. Nicky Cadden will also have an eye on a starting place having completed his first 45 minutes of the season on Sunday. I’d like to see Mykola paired with Kieron Bowie at the top end of the pitch as well, so far Gray has had to manage the minutes for both players, but I’m sure he’ll want to have his danger men on the pitch together sooner rather than later.

It promises to be a great game on Saturday, there is no question of either side going into the match looking simply not to lose. This has the potential to be the football equivalent of two heavyweights standing toe to toe, trading blows until one eventually bests the other.

Hopefully a healthy home crowd gets behind the players and the season can finally get going with a strong Hibs performance and a vital three Premiership points in the bag come Saturday evening.