ALAN STUBBS has insisted Hibs can hold on to their top players this summer - despite failing to win promotion back to the SPFL Premiership.

The Easter Road club's bid to return to the top flight came to an end on Saturday when they could only beat Rangers 1-0 in the second leg of the play-off semi-final.

The 2-1 aggregate defeat to the Ibrox club means they will need to spend a second season in the Championship.

But former Celtic captain and centre-half Stubbs is confident Hibs won't lose their stars - like highly-rated midfielder and one-time Rangers target Scott Allan.

He said: "I don't see any reason why staying in the Championship would mean we lose players.

"The budget will still be the same next year so I'm hopeful I can keep all these players.

"The one thing I can't stop is, if someone likes one of my players, a club from bidding. But I can stop it if it's not enough.

"When you have good players, there's always interest. I'm glad of that because it means I'm signing some good players.

"We'll do everything we can to hold on to our best players. Most are still under contract, a few aren't, but we're making progress behind the scenes with that.

"I believe in these players, I think they're good enough, I think they've got their best years ahead of them and I'm quite excited by that."

Stubbs, who made his first move into management when he left his job as a youth coach at Everton and joined Hibs last year, is confident the Edinburgh club can go one better next season.

And he has vowed to emulate the achievement of city rivals Hearts in the 2014/15 campaign by winning the league outright.

He said: "I honestly feel if we can keep them together, we'll go up automatically next year.

"I'm not one for making predictions I don't believe in - I honestly believe we'll go up next year.

"I think the team's good enough. I want to try to take all these play-off games out of the equation and do it the way Hearts have done it this year."