GEORGE CRAIG, the Hibernian Head of Football Operations, has warned the club's challengers in the Championship that his team have improved greatly from where they were last summer.

A year ago, Alan Stubbs was in the process of putting together a squad and numbers on the first day of training were slim, and yet this young team managed to finish second even if they lost out to Rangers in the play-offs.

Craig is delighted that for the most part Hibernian have kept their players, especially the talented Scott Allan, and he believes the Leith outfit are in for a successful campaign

"You have to look for progress and I saw that on the first day of this pre-season," said Craig. "If I thought back 12 months, at one point it looked like (chief executive) Leanne Dempster and would be taking the first day of pre-season training. It's night and day this year and if we can keep progressing we won't be far away.

"We have kept a lot of players. At this stage last year we were building a team and we did that successfully over time. But it affected our start to the season, undoubtedly, but this time it's been a case of tying up guys we had on loan like Mark Oxley. We've added a couple like Dan Carmichael and James Keatings. If you look at it now and at this time last year's there's been progress."

And the best news in that part of Edinburgh is key midfielder Allan's decision to stay for one more season, despite keen interest elsewhere with both Celtic and Rangers at least interested.

"The first person I saw on the first day of pre-season training was Scott Allan and it was the same bright, bubbly Scott Allan that left at the end of last season," said Craig. "So there's no doubt there (that he will be staying.)"

Craig will find out a bit more about just how good his team is when they take on Rangers of all teams on the first day of the season, after the rivals were drawn together in the first round of the Petrofac Training Cup.

"We will be going into it to win the game, as will Rangers, " said Craig. "But it's hard to read anything more into it than that. The season is a marathon.

"But we've nothing to fear. And that goes for the season ahead. Rangers will provide significant competition but we are not thinking it's something we can't do.

"There will be a change to Rangers. It's a fresh start for them, there's a new plan in place and there have been changes at the club. It will be different personnel."

Goalkeeper Oxley agreed a two-year contract and said: "I enjoyed my experience with Hibs last season. We've started something here and now we want to build on it by achieving promotion. There were other options available, but I wanted to continue to be a part of what the manager is building here at the club."