A month ago, a woefully unbalanced Hibernian selection lost to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, looking disorganised, clueless and in real danger of being dragged towards the relegation zone; this Saturday they head to Ibrox with an excellent chance of continuing a five-match unbeaten run.

Mixu Paatelainen, the manager whose head fans were calling for after dire pre-season form continued into November, must take credit for belatedly recognising the problems in his team and rectifying them.

He has settled on a back four, and much-needed solidity in midfield has been provided by moving centre-half Sol Bamba into a holding role, the return of Steven Thicot from injury and the decision to stick with the hard working John Rankin, rather than players with more flair but less dedication, such as Fabian Yantorno.

It helps when you have a centre-forward of Steven Fletcher's undoubted class, whose last-minute goal at Aberdeen ended Hibs' losing streak and started their current plunder of 11 points from 15. He had already set up a good chance for Colin Nish before David Elebert clattered into him early on, forcing him off with a bad knock to his left ankle. It looked serious, but Paatelainen expects Fletcher to be fit to play at Ibrox.

That injury appeared a boost to Hamilton's hopes of recovering from their 7-1 mauling there last week, but optimism would have been dented by the sight of Fletcher's replacement: Derek Riordan.

Their six-man midfield threatened to stifle Hibs, but Hamilton's problems were underlined in two minutes near half-time, when Simon Mensing failed to convert a chance when one-on-one with Yves Ma-Kalambay, only to see Hibs break from the resulting corner and a tap in for Riordan.

Ian Murray, who burst forward from left-back to the goal-line to create the chance, believes the club are being rewarded for their patience.

"I think there's always going to be concern when results start going the other way for you, but we've got some strong characters here," he said. "There were problems in the past, but I think some of those players have been let go. The gaffer's given us a kick up the backside at times and that's maybe what the players needed.

"We knew the manager was under pressure and you hear it from the fans. We knew his ideas were right, we just got off to a bad start, but he's a manager you want to play for and I think that shows. The Aberdeen game was the wee kick-start we needed.

"He's been backed well by the board, he's bringing in Jonatan Johansson and the board have given him money to bring Riordan back. That was a statement they were behind him and, obviously, with Derek scoring again today he's starting to repay that."

As hard-working and dedicated as Hamilton are, it seems ultimately they will lack the quality to stay up. The squad is essentially the same as the one that won the first division, and though their feted young players continue to improve - James McCarthy was excellent again - they are missing two or three players of proven top-flight standard, especially a finisher.

Lone striker Richard Offiong might have levelled the score minutes after half-time, when his 30-yard drive hit the crossbar, but as they committed men forward, Hibs started to pick them off on the counterattack; some composure from Riordan, Nish or Alan O'Brien would have killed the game long before Rob Jones' late header made it 2-0.