ALAN Stubbs believes his Hibs team have learned from their Ladbrokes Premiership play-off semi-final defeat to Rangers and can clinch a place in the top flight this season.

The Easter Road club lost 2-1 to the Ibrox club over two legs 12 months ago after finishing ahead of them in the Championship – but Stubbs reckons they will be far better as a result of the experience.

Ahead of the first leg quarter-final match against Raith Rovers at Stark’s Park tomorrow evening, he said: “You have to learn from every match you play in.

“Last year, we go to Ibrox and it is a close game. It was the same at Easter Road. No matter what, I think all the games in this season's play-offs are going to be close games.

“We are happy with the way we are going into them and happy with our form, but we know we are going to have to perform very well to come through.”

Rangers ended up losing the play-off matches 6-1 on aggregate to Motherwell – but Stubbs reckons their failure to win promotion had nothing to do with fatigue.

And he is confident his Hibs team, who will play in the Scottish Cup final against Rangers on May 21, have the legs they need to negotiate all the games they could face this month.

"I was actually surprised, and I think everybody was surprised, with the outcome to the last two games last season between Rangers and Motherwell,” he said.

"I don't think anybody would have thought the deficit would be what it was. If anything it was the game at Ibrox that did it.

“Motherwell went there and, probably a bit similar to the St Johnstone game this season, they hit them on the counter and scored a couple of goals.

"Straight away that puts you on the back foot and there's an urgency to get back in the game, and that suits the opposition, because you're going for it and you leave more spaces. I don't think it was just tiredness that contributed to those games, I really don't."

Stubbs added: "We've got some youth in the team and we've been playing Saturday-Wednesday for a considerable number of

weeks now.

"And, I've got to say, over the last four weeks we haven't looked like a team that's necessarily looked tired. If anything I think they've looked sharp and bright again.”