The words of Paul Hanlon have heightened expectations of new, spine-chilling twists in the ever-unfolding horror story at Ibrox when Hibernian travel there for a Friday 13th visit in a little over three weeks' time.

It is the goals of Callum Booth and Lewis Stevenson, however, that really ought to be adding a serious touch of paraskevidekatriaphobia to the fear and loathing already coursing through a Rangers support that must feel it now exists within a perpetual Nightmare On Edmiston Drive.

The only partnership in Edinburgh with a less impressive strike rate than these two are Sunshine and Sweetie in the panda enclosure at the zoo. When Booth and Stevenson are getting themselves on the scoresheet, it suggests that Hibs really are starting to develop the elusive chemistry needed to overcome the impotence that has led them down a rather sorry road in recent years.

Alan Stubbs' side are now just five points behind Rangers in the SPFL Championship, having played a game more, following this resounding win over Cowdenbeath, which saw efforts from Hanlon, Jason Cummings and Scott Robertson give those hitherto misfiring full-backs the self-belief to unleash their weaponry.

Thanks to Rangers' impending League Cup semi-final against Celtic, Hibs will have completed another additional fixture by the time they turn up in Govan next month and could easily find themselves in a position where victory there would propel them into second place.

Hanlon welcomes that possibility and has already spoken about how the 4-0 win over Rangers at Easter Road last month - "a bit of a doing", as he put it - has reinforced the desire to exert even greater pressure on the embattled Glasgow club.

The Hibees want blood, no doubt about it. Booth and Stevenson sharpening their teeth is, possibly, a sign that this is a side now committed and confident enough to act on Stubbs' pre-Cowdenbeath demand to match passing football with "a ruthless precision".

The pairing, oddly enough, scored their first goals for the club on the same day in February 2011 during a 2-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Until Saturday, they had each managed to hit the net only once more in the green and white.

Booth, in fairness, did manage a few during loan spells here and there, but Stevenson has managed just three goals now in almost 250 first-team appearances at Easter Road. It is a ghastly record, which he does, at least, make no attempt to hide from.

"You almost felt the crowd laughing when I scored at the end rather than cheering," he quipped. "All the same, it was nice to get the goal and the win.

"Callum spoke to me afterwards, but his goal didn't make me think I was going to get one. I never think I've got a chance of scoring. We are encouraged to get further forward, though. I've not had a lot of chances, but I probably have been in the box more this season than in any other."

It has taken time to rebuild a Hibernian side that lost its way under Terry Butcher and suffered the ignominy of relegation through a play-off defeat at the hands of Hamilton Academical last season.

This victory over a Cowdenbeath side incapable of forcing a save from the home goalkeeper Mark Oxley, though, should not be taken as an absolute sign that everything in the garden is now rosy.

For the first 20 minutes of the second period, Hibernian, now with just one loss in 15 league matches, took their foot firmly off the accelerator when they should really have been punishing their hapless visitors.

With a tricky visit to their promotion rivals, Queen of the South, beckoning on Saturday, they will have to avoid such drops in intensity to maintain this assault on Rangers.

"Confidence took a while to build up, but I think we're there now," said Stevenson. "Even though we've not been beaten a lot recently, we've probably drawn too many games, especially at home, where we should be winning.

"We've got a few massive games coming up towards the end of the season and we want to finish as high as possible.

"Hearts are the benchmark and the team everyone looks up to. Rangers are in our sights, but, after we beat them last time, we drew our next two games and the gap became bigger than it had been. That shows you it's not just the games against Hearts and Rangers we have to rise up to. The games against the so-called smaller teams are important too.

"While we haven't taken chances in the past, we managed to do that against Cowdenbeath and that was the main difference. We've probably played better than that this season and maybe drawn the game."