BRANDON BARKER insists Hibernian are in the mix to be best of the rest in the Premiership – despite losing to Rangers on Wednesday night.

Neil Lennon’s side fell six points adrift of the Light Blues as they suffered a 2-1 defeat at Easter Road.

Hibs stormed out of the traps and took a ninth minute lead as Lewis Stevenson fired them in front but they couldn’t capitalise on their early dominance.

Goals late in the first half from Josh Windass and Alfredo Morelos turned the tables as the Gers made it four wins on the spin under interim boss Graeme Murty.

Hibs have now turned their attentions to third-placed Aberdeen as they prepare for the trip to Pittodrie this weekend.

And Barker believes the Capital club have shown that they will be there or there abouts at the top end of the standings this term.

He said: “We are definitely in the mix for second. On Sunday we were 2-0 down against Celtic and I don’t know how many teams would come back and get a point.

“That just shows our character. We are 2-1 down against Rangers and it was the same – you could see our fight. We would never ever just bow down and fold.

“We will never go into a game thinking, ‘This team is going to beat us’.

“We always believe that we can win. That showed with the number of chances we created against Rangers.

“Hopefully we can stay right in contact with the teams in second place. I am sure we will.

“We need to get a positive result on Saturday.

“I am not going to sit here and say that we are the second best team in the league.

“But have gone toe to toe with every team.

“Celtic are a very strong side. They are competing in Europe.

“But the other two? Every time we have played against them, we have shown that can go toe to toe.

“It’s looking up for us. We are a confident bunch of players and hopefully we can get that slice of luck.”