Thornton Hibs: Boss Craig Gilbert praises professionalism of his players for abstaining from alcohol the night before Sunday league game

Hibs aces completely abstained from drinking alcohol at a club function on Saturday, leaving them in good condition to go out the next day and win 1-0 thanks to Mikey Gould’s strike on 31 minutes.

"We had a race night on Saturday but the boys drank water,” Gilbert said. “So they were professional with the next day in mind.

"It was important that we went there and won as it’s the kind of lesser teams that we struggle against.

“The boys played well and really should have scored more goals in the first half.

"It was gusting and we had the wind with us. We missed a lot of opportunities and went in 1-0 up at half-time.

"We kept on the front foot in the second half but missed opportunities again and they came into it a wee bit with the wind.

"They had a lot of young guys playing as they were short of players because it was a Sunday fixture.

"Their player Yogi (William Scott), who usually plays up front, was playing centre half and he’s usually a real threat in front of goal.

"He actually popped up front for the last five minutes but we managed the game out.

"The experienced boys did their job and it was a worthy win.

"It’s a good three points and we have to go on a wee run now because we are five or six games behind people.”

With Thornton having had a chronic lack of home games in recent months, Gilbert is hoping local punters will turn out in their droves for this Saturday’s home league fixture against Ormiston Primrose which kicks off at 2.20pm.

"We had 120 people at the race night on Saturday so it was well supported,” he added. "Fingers crossed a lot of them turn up for this game and hopefully we can get a good result against Ormiston. I’ve never known anything like the lack of home games we’ve had this season.”

Thornton have discovered that they will be away to Crossgates Primrose in the League Cup second round on Saturday, April 1 with a 2.30pm kick-off. This will be the fourth time they’ve played Crossgates this term.