Hibs' form is far from Brazil-iant

Tonight, though, Stokes will be hoping he'll finally get the opportunity to play at the Emirates, his 17th goal of the season for Hibs against St Johnstone at the weekend helping earn him a late call-up to Giovanni Trapatoni's squad in response to the doubt over Robbie Keane's fitness. Keane has now rejoined the squad but Stokes will still be in the mix.

While all focus will be on facing the South Americans and earning a fourth international cap, Stokes admitted his full attention will quickly return to helping end a run of five matches without a win, just two points from a possible 15 having seen John Hughes' side slip to fourth place in the SPL table.

However, although he admitted recent form has hardly been that of a side which has it's eyes firmly fixed on European football next season, the Dublin-born striker claimed events in the past couple of weeks have conspired against the Easter Road outfit.

Three big decisions, he insisted, had gone against him and his team-mates. Namely, a red card for countryman Liam Miller as Hibs went down to a late goal against Motherwell at Fir Park, a punishment later reduced to a mere booking by referee Euan Norris but a decision which nevertheless left the Edinburgh club to play for an hour with only ten men.

Stokes also pointed to how Graeme Smith was allowed to remain on the pitch despite pulling down Hibs striker Colin Nish with even the St Johnstone goalkeeper admitting he expected to see red just two minutes into the game. And, to rub salt into the wounds, the penalty given against Miller which allowed Saints to claim a late equaliser and so ensure another afternoon of disappointment for Hughes' men.

While Miller, who was so incensed he was booked for his protests, later admitted he could see why referee Alan Muir made the award after the ball struck his arm, Stokes was adamant there was such a lack of intent claims for a spot-kick would have been waved away more often than not.

He said: "I think Liam was really unlucky, the ball has gone to his hand. He has to keep his balance, his leg was in the air so his hand was up too. I'm pretty sure that 90 per cent of the time the ref would just turn his back on it.

"It's the way things have been going. Obviously we can't say if we'd have won or even managed a point at Fir Park the previous week had Liam not been sent off but it's obviously easier playing with 11 men rather than ten for an hour.

"Decisions, big decisions have gone against us. It's frustrating but we can't let them affect us. We have to keep concentrating on each game as it comes and Saturday's match against Kilmarnock now becomes our most important match."

Although adamant he and his team-mates feel hard done by, Stokes conceded Hughes' players themselves have to accept responsibility for falling short in recent weeks.

He said: "We made a smashing start against St Johnstone but had a disappointing ending. We scored early and midway through the second half we had one or two chances to wrap things up by making it 2-0. We didn't take them, though, and ended up being punished for it."

Dundee United's win over basement outfit Falkirk saw the Tannadice side leapfrog Hibs into third place, albeit by a solitary point. But while admitting the League table may make disappointing viewing at the moment, he firmly believes Hibs can jump ahead of the Tannadice outfit once again. Agreeing the recent revivals of both Motherwell and Hearts have, perhaps, turned the fight for third place into a four-horse race, a defiant Stokes said: "We definitely still feel we are good enough to get there. We've been a bit unlucky, two points out of 15 isn't great, but we have also gone to Glasgow and taken points from Rangers and Celtic, so I am sure we can get on a run and claw some of those points back."

Although some may be consoling themselves with the fact that they'd have happily settled for the current scenario at the start of the season given last summer's upheaval with Hughes replacing Mixu Paatelainen at the helm and the loss of key figures in Steven Fletcher and Rob Jones, Stokes insisted no-one within the home dressing-room was satisfied with what has been achieved so far.

He said: "Perhaps fourth and being in the last eight of the Scottish Cup would have been enough for some but when you start as well as we did you want to aim higher and higher.

"You cannot say you are happy with this or that and in the position we are in at the moment we aren't happy. We want to push the club on, players and manager alike.

"We want to give the fans more to appreciate, there's no point doing what we have done and have a bad end to the season.

"We have to buck up our ideas, forget what's gone against us recently and kick on from here.

"Kilmarnock will be another tough match for us but we are getting to that stage of the season when the matches just seem to fly away. Back in August when we started the season stretches away into the distance but now they seem to go by so much more quickly.

"Saturday is another massive game, we need to get that win on board, get the confidence back up and keep that push going for third place."