Despite the likely prospect that HIbernian will be 19 points adrift of city rivals and Championship leaders Hearts tomorrow night, captain Liam Craig admits he remains convinced the Leith outfit are still capable of clinching the title.

The midfielder, however, did add the caveat that Alan Stubbs' side would probably have to string together an eight-game winning run to have any chance of putting pressure on their Gorgie counterparts. In coming from behind to beat Raith Rovers on Saturday having defeated Alloa a week earlier, Hibs recorded successive league wins for the first time in the whole of 2014.

Rangers make the trip to Easter Road next weekend before Hibs take on Hearts in their first match of the new year. The results of these two matches could effectively determine whether they will be in the hunt for league success or will have settle for the play-offs. As things stand, Craig has certainly not given up hope of guiding Hibs, who moved up to third place on goal difference ahead of Queen of the South, to the summit.

"We've always been looking up the table rather than over our shoulder," said the former St Johnstone and Falkirk player. "We're seven points behind Rangers and we know how big it is next week. "If we can go and win next week, it closes the gap again. "That's what we need to keep doing, keep looking in front, looking at Rangers and Hearts. "There's a lot of games left but we need to go on a run of six, seven, eight wins in a row if we're going to have any chance of winning the league. "It's probably going to take that and I think we're capable of going on a run like that. "That is now one defeat in the last 11 games and in a  lot of the games, we have been very dominant. "We just need to keep taking it game by game and keep winning. That's two on the bounce now. We'll try and make it three next week. "It would be massive if we were to beat Rangers, we know how important it is." Hibs made life difficult for themselves on Saturday.

Barrie McKay gave Raith the lead against the run of play with a finish at Mark Oxley's near post in the 40th minute. Jason Cummings levelled before the break with a close-range effort before Liam Fontaine headed in and Dominique Malonga found the net late on. Craig admits he found it hard to get his head around the fact that Hibs had failed to register back-to-back wins this year prior to the weekend.

He added: "It does come as a surprise. We have spoken about how we need to make our home form better. That's why it was nice to get the win and the clean sheet last week. Coming to Raith and going behind, a lot of people would be saying, 'same old Hibs again', but we're getting past that.

"We've still got a bit to go yet, but we're looking forward to getting back to Easter Road next week. "And it doesn't come much bigger than Rangers and Hearts in the next two."

McKay admits he is unsure what the future holds with his loan from Rangers due to expire next month. He said: "I don't know what is going to happen as yet in January; I could be staying, I could be going back. I would happily go back and play for Rangers but unfortunately I never really got my chance. As long as I'm playing I will be happy, whether that's at Rangers, here or somewhere else, I'm happy to do that."