Neil Lennon wants Hibs to gain psychological edge over Dundee United

Neil Lennon took over at Hibs in the summer

Neil Lennon believes winning Friday's encounter with Dundee United would give Hibernian a mental edge in the Scottish Championship title race.

Lennon's Hibs lead United by a point at the top of the table.

"It might have some bearing on it [the title race] but there's still a lot of football, basically half the season to go," he told BBC Scotland.

"We know if we win, we go four points clear and psychologically that would be great."

Greenock Morton, at home to Dumbarton on Saturday, are 10 points behind United. Falkirk visit Raith Rovers that day, with the Bairns a point off Morton and Rovers two points further behind.

Hibs returned to the top of the league after beating Falkirk last weekend

The league winners will gain automatic promotion to the Premiership while the second-, third- and fourth-placed sides will go into the Premiership play-offs.

Asked if finishing top and gaining automatic promotion was a two-team race, Lennon replied: "You just never know.

"Morton have been pretty strong this season, played very well against us a few weeks ago. Raith and Falkirk can still be in the mix as well and someone can always put a run together, maybe 10, 12 games and be right up there so we have to be very wary of that and just look after our own house.

"It's very competitive, there's no question about that. Anyone can beat any team on any given day. It's been tough but we are top of the league. We've shown good consistency so far. You'd always like to think you could be pulling away at some stage but that's not been the case."

Hibs drew with United when they visited early in the season then lost to the Tangerines at Tannadice last month.

Lennon expects another tight game but hopes otherwise.

"I hope we can take the game to them at every opportunity and get on the front foot because we're at home and [we want to] get the crowd really rallied," he said.

Meanwhile, Lennon says midfielder John McGinn "could be in contention for a squad place" following long-term injury and indicated they may be "one more" addition to his squad following last week's capture of winger Chris Humphrey from Preston North End.

"We've got a pretty strong squad as it is," he added.