TERRY BUTCHER vowed to make Hibernian "a team people hate playing against" after he was officially unveiled yesterday as the new manager of the Edinburgh club.

The Englishman follows in the footsteps of Pat Fenlon, who resigned 12 days ago, and becomes Hibs' seventh manager in more than seven years.

He has been joined at Easter Road by Maurice Malpas, who turned down the chance to succeed him as manager of Inverness, with coach/scout Steve Marsella expected to join the pair in the coming days. Butcher spoke enthusiastically about the potential at Hibs - he praised the stadium, training ground, history and fanbase - but felt that he had inherited a group of players who had become "fed up losing".

Hibs finished outside of the top six in the last three seasons of the Scottish Premier League, and have lost their last four matches without scoring. Under Butcher and Malpas, Inverness became known as a side who married talent with an insatiable work ethic and determination, and the new Hibs manager wants to replicate those qualities at Easter Road.

"It's a very proud club," said Butcher. "We want to make the fans proud of the team again. We have to give them a lot more on the pitch, which we'll do. At this moment in time people playing against Hibs probably think they have a good chance of three points. We want to change that mentality and be a team people hate playing against simply because we are organised, strong, there is bags of effort, we are wholehearted, together and the boys can play a bit as well. That is a start and then we will see how far we get.

"Allied to the stadium, the fans, the history, the potential of the club: it's all there. The thing we have to get right now is the team, because all the blocks are in place. The players are very willing, very keen. They're fed up losing and want to get back to winning ways, get back to enjoying their football and being together."

Butcher watched from the Main Stand on Saturday as Inverness defeated Hibs 2-0 to move up to second place in the SPFL Premiership. His task now is to try to bring about those same qualities in his new players. "What would I regard as a success here? Getting Hibs playing good football, with pride and passion and being a difficult team to beat first and foremost. There are all kinds of ways you set your team out to play.

"At Caley Thistle, I said it was about stamina, style and steel. If you looked at Saturday's Caley Thistle team, you would say they had that in abundance. It is something we want to instil in our players here."

Malpas revealed it would have been more lucrative had he elected to become the new Inverness manager but felt he couldn't turn down the chance to move to a club the size of Hibs. "I was given permission by the club to speak to Hibs and, having spoken to Terry beforehand, it was quite an easy decision for me," said the assistant manager. "I just felt the potential of the club was too much for me to knock back. It would have been easier for me to sit at Inverness. Financially, it would have been better, but we work together."

Rod Petrie, the chairman, batted away the idea that some of his recent appointments had been left-field but felt there was a security in employing someone of Butcher's stock.

"We've got a manager who is undoubtedly a winner; he is very passionate about it, and he hates losing," he said. "And he needs to make our group of players better, he needs to get better performances and more consistent performances and he wants to win games.

"We need to be challenging at the top of Scottish football, we need to be playing in Europe, and we need to be challenging at the highest level. Fundamentally, we need to be winning as we haven't won enough."