David Gray sends Hibs message to Thibault Klidje, reacts to Rangers draw and gives Jamie McGrath update

Hibs spent £1 million on Klidje when they bought him from Swiss side Luzern last month. However, despite the weighty transfer fee, Gray has drip-fed the 24-year-old into action, only using him as a substitute until he rotated his team for the trip to West Lothian on Sunday, which was sandwiched in between the club’s Conference League fixtures.

Gray made six changes in total, but his team put on a professional display against fellow Premiership opposition. Klidje opened the scoring on 43 minutes before substitute Josh Mulligan rounded off the win with a long-range strike on 87 minutes to set up a quarter-final clash with Rangers at Ibrox next month.

Klidje was given a warm round of applause by more than 2000 travelling Hibs fans and Gray hailed a “strong” performance from the Togolese internationalist.

“I’m delighted for Thibault getting his goal,” said Gray. “When you bring a striker to a club you want them to get off the mark as quickly as they can.

“We have been patient with him, we don’t want to rush him because he’s getting used to the intensity of our training and the physical challenges. He is still settling but he was a constant threat, he brought energy and he took his goal well.

“He put in a very strong performance, there is a lot of improvement still to come and he will take a lot of confidence from that today.”

Hibs show their depth

Gray was proud of his team’s efforts given they had played extra time against Partizan Belgrade on Thursday night. He made six changes in total and handed a debut to 21-year-old Zambian midfielder Miguel Chaiwa, who was impressive in a physical contest.

“I thought it was a very professional performance,” Gray continued. “We had good control of the game and deserved to go through.

“I’m delighted for the players because before the game we knew people would be looking at this asking how we’d cope with another game in Europe, extra-time, coming to Livingston on an artificial pitch, and the mental fatigue because of the schedule we’ve been on.

“I thought it was a brilliant performance from that point of view.  We were able to make changes and the level of performance didn’t drop, so it was a really good day’s work from everyone.

“We knew this schedule was coming so had to be prepared for it, so that’s why you have a squad.  That was the challenge for the players who haven’t been playing. It was job done in terms of that, really good from the squad and we’ve got minutes into a lot of players.

“Everyone was of a very high standard, which was to the benefit of the group. We have been quite consistent over the piece in terms of certain positions.

“Something we demonstrated last year was the strength of the group.  That showed today, bringing on Josh Mulligan, Elie Youan and Junior Hoilett gave us legs.  It’s a very good headache to have for me.”

Hibs’ reaction to facing Rangers

Hibs now move on to the last eight to face Rangers at Ibrox and on such a prospect, Gray remarked: “It’s a very tough draw, as we know, we knew who we’d face if we got through today.

“To win the trophy you have to beat the best teams. It will be a tough test but one we’ll look forward to when it comes around. There’s a lot of football to be played and I’ve always said when you come to this football club it’s about trying to win something.”

Attention now turns for Hibs to Thursday night’s Conference League play-off round first leg against Polish side Legia Warsaw - and Gray is hopeful that playmaker Jamie McGrath will make the tie after missing Livingston due to a knee issue.

“We are very hopeful,” said Gray. “He’s due to train on Monday. He will be in full training between now and Thursday and as long as he keeps progressing that would be a positive.

“Another positive would be Nicky Cadden again [after a hamstring issue], the physios probably thought it was too long with the extra time the other night. We got another 30 mins into him today so everyone should be in a good position come Thursday.

Livingston manager David Martindale conceded that his team did not do enough to progress.

“I don’t think we deserved to go through, Hibs deserved it,” said Martindale. “We lost a poor goal just before half-time but I don’t think there was much in the game until then.

“Hibs are flying and against top six teams you get crucified, that’s what happens against the bigger clubs. Second half we changed shape and it helped us, we looked like we might get the next goal. But Mulligan came up with an incredible goal and then the game ran away from us.”