Hibs boss won't curb passion

HIBS boss Mixu Paatelainen will return to the dug-out tomorrow promising being banished to the stand for four matches won't dim his touchline passion.

Paatelainen was hit with the ban despite pleading his case to the SFA after twice falling out with match officials and still feels he did nothing wrong on either occasion.

The Finn looked on in frustration from a distance as his side's winless run stretched to six matches with draws against St Mirren and Aberdeen sandwiching defeats by Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee United.

But while delighted he'll be closer to the action as his players take on Motherwell at Fir Park tomorrow, Paatelainen insisted his presence in the away dug-out shouldn't have any bearing on his players' performance.

Instead, he's looking for the storming comeback from 2-0 down to snatch a point against the Dons last weekend as the inspiration for Hibs' first win since the beginning of last month.

Back at Easter Road following a trip abroad to work on the next stage of his UEFA Pro Licence, Paatelainen said: "Yes, I'm looking forward to being back in the dug-out but it's not the people who are there who win matches, it's the players out on the pitch.

"Hopefully I can help them but I don't think they really take any notice of who is in the dug-out once they are concentrating on the game."

Promising to be "my usual self," Paatelainen added: "Not being in the dug-out was frustrating in the sense we did not get the results we wanted. We have to turn the corner and get some victories under our belt."

And, while agreeing a visit to Fir Park was a tough proposition, particularly after Mark McGhee's side crashed to Falkirk last week, Paatelainen believes the fightback against Aberdeen can act as a spur, his own ecstatic reaction to Steven Fletcher's last-gasp equaliser caught by the television cameras. He said: "The fighting spirit shown by the boys was unbelievable, fantastic.

"We'd dominated the game, had chances but didn't capitalise on them and then lost two terrible, totally avoidable goals.

"But I still felt that with 20-odd minutes to go we had time to get a couple of goals, if not a winner.

"My reaction at the end? Well everyone knows how I feel towards this club, how much I wanted to win as a player and now as a coach and manager. Nothing changes."

Hibs' attack, however, could be blunted by the absence of top scorer Fletcher, who is still troubled by the ankle injury which forced him out of Scotland's clash with Argentina on Wednesday night.

Fletcher was at the training ground yesterday as his team-mates enjoyed a day off. Paatelainen said: "He got some treatment but is still feeling some discomfort so he is a doubt."

Paatelainen, however, returned to discover French kid Steve Pinau had taken his tally to seven goals in five reserve matches with another double in the win over St Mirren, leading the Hibs boss to say: "He's beginning to find the form we know he is capable of, he's a goalscorer with an unbelievable work-rate."