John Rankin says the best John Hughes' Hibernian are hoping for this season is a third place finish in the SPL.

The Hibs midfielder says the Yogi revolution has already taken root at the club, and while that means high levels of enthusiasm and passion, it also means a strong dose of reality.

“The atmosphere is probably the best it’s been,” Rankin told STV “but there’s no point in saying we’re going to split the Old Firm. We know how difficult that’s going to be. Our target is to finish in third.

“There’s a lot of hype: the fans are happy, the manager’s from Leith, the players are happy the way the training and the games have been going. He’s got us behind him in what he’s trying to achieve. I’ve certainly been taken in by what he’s saying. Hopefully everyone else has as well.”

He continued: “The likes of Hearts and Dundee United who we’re going to be fighting for third spot have got a bit of solidarity. They’ve been there and done it. We’ll have to do it the hard way.”

The new-look Hibs, complete with sixth new signing Liam Miller, will aim to return to winning ways against Hamilton this weekend after losing 1-0 to Celtic in their last match.

Rankin continued: “Everybody’s back fit; we’ve got a game Sunday, everybody’s 100% and ready to go. Albeit we got beat last week but we’ve had a good 10 days to deal with that.

“We need to go there and get ourselves back on track after losing to Celtic last Sunday. We need to get three points and get back on track to what we’re trying to achieve.”