Hibernian

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Celtic: Hart, A. Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor, Iwata, McGregor, O'Riley, M. Johnston, Palma, Oh

Substitutes: Bain, Phillips, Kyogo, Turnbull, Holm, Tilio, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston

Hibernian: Marshall, Miller, Fish, Bushiri, Stevenson, Levitt, Newell, Campbell, Tavares, Boyle, Youan

Substitutes: Wollacott, Hanlon, Vente, Jeggo, Doidge, Harbottle, Molotnikov, Whittaker, Landers

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• Celtic are unbeaten in 17 home league games against Hibernian (W13 D4) since a 1-2 reverse in January 2010 under Tony Mowbray.

• Hibernian have earned four points in their last two league meetings with Celtic (W1 D1), as many as their previous 11 beforehand (W0 D4 L7).

• Celtic have already dropped points in as many home league games this season as they did in the whole of last term (two draws in each campaign).

• Hibernian have only lost one of their last six away league games (W2 D3), a 0-4 defeat at Rangers in October.

• Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers has won just three of his eight Scottish Premiership games against Hibernian (37.5%), his lowest win ratio against a side in the competition as a manager.

Adelaide United forward Musa Toure, 18, is reportedly a target for Hibernian. (Record), external

Nick Montgomery says Lewis Miller will return against Celtic and the Hibs manager urges him to "rein in the verbals" following his recent suspension. (Scotsman - subscription required), external

Read Wednesday's Scottish Gossip

Luis Palma is fit for Celtic after coming off against St Johnstone with cramp. Liel Abada (thigh), Daizen Maeda (knee) and Reo Hatate (hamstring) remain out.

Hibernian welcome Lewis Miller back after suspension while Jordan Obita returns after missing the 2-0 win over Aberdeen with a minor injury. Long-term absentees Adam Le Fondre (hamstring), Jake Doyle-Hayes (ankle), Harry McKirdy (heart) and Chris Cadden (Achilles) are all still unavailable.

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Hibs manager Nick Montgomery wants his side to set their sights high, and says he uses Leicester City's Premier League triumph as an inspiration for the underdog punching above their weight.

The Easter Road side have won three league games on the spin, and go to Celtic Park on Wednesday in high spirits, with Montgomery challenging his side to compete with the champions.

“It’s very hard but you only have to look at Leicester in the Premier League, no-one really expected them to do that (winning in 2016),” Montgomery told the PA news agency.

“Every club in every league will see that as an inspirational story. Is it sustainable? No, it’s hard to be sustainable because look at where Leicester are now but that’s a one-off example.

“You can only try to achieve the best positions every season. It’s not easy to compete against the two giants of the division, but that’s something every team aspires to do.

“I’m not saying we can compete on any level with them financially, budget-wise that’s never going to happen.

“What we can do is make sure we have a team competitive enough to make sure we’re competing in every game.”

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Fifth-placed Hibs travel to Celtic on Wednesday night and spirits will be high after winning three games in a row.

Would you make any changes to the line-up or stick with the same squad as the win against the Dons? Tell us here.

Matty Fairnie, Longbangers podcast, external

Dylan Vente ended his short goal drought and Will Fish headed home his first league goal of the season as Hibs beat Aberdeen 2-0, but it was David Marshall whose performance lit up Easter Road on Saturday.

The veteran goalkeeper has been enjoying something of a resurgence in recent weeks, after a difficult start to the season had led many people (me included) to question his place in the Hibs starting line-up.

Aberdeen enjoyed plenty of possession throughout the match but could not find a way past Hibernian’s number one. Marshall, having made a couple of incredible saves as Hibs worked their way to a two-goal lead, rounded off his afternoon’s work with a fine penalty save as the game neared its conclusion.

Hibs’ performance was a tricky one to assess. At times, Hibs were terrific – confident phases of passing creating good opportunities for Martin Boyle and Jair Tavares, while Will Fish and Rocky Bushiri posed a threat at set-pieces. Yet there were long passages of play where Aberdeen had Hibs pegged back, calling on some backs-to-the-wall defending and heroics from Marshall.

Nick Montgomery was without his two first-choice full backs, Lewis Miller and Jordan Obita, so started with two players at either end of their careers in their place. At right-back, Rory Whittaker – Hibs youngest ever player – got his first Easter Road start, while Lewis Stevenson added another appearance to an ever-growing total. Both acquitted themselves well in what was a busy afternoon for the pair, although Stevenson will be annoyed at being penalised for a handball offence he could do little about, for Aberdeen’s penalty.

Fortunately, that turned out to be inconsequential thanks to Marshall’s one-man mission to stop Aberdeen, and Hibs saw out the match to claim their third successive win.

Next up is Celtic in Glasgow on Wednesday night, Hibs will need to replicate Marshall’s heroics across the pitch to get a positive result at a venue they’ve not won at since John Hughes’ time in charge at the club.

Sportscene presenter, Jonathan Sutherland

No exactly surprising, is it? That was a mighty impressive showing from Hibernian to hang on and grind out a big win against Aberdeen.

David Marshall faced so many attempts on goal from the Dons, and he pulled of so many saves. The penalty stop was the icing on the cake.

Will Fish played a big part in protecting that clean sheet, too, and he of course grabbed a goal as well in a good day at the office.

And speaking of good day's at the office, Martin Boyle picked up two assists at Easter Road. His electric pace was always a danger.

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We asked for your thoughts as David Marshall saved the day to see Hibs past Aberdeen at Easter Road...

Colin: Three big points. We weren't at our best but there's different ways to win a football match. We're playing good football and our mentality is improving and we're a difficult team to beat. Nick Montgomery deserves a lot of credit and knows what we need to do to improve further.

Nick: A very solid display today. It says a lot that Marshall won man of the match. There was some frustration from the fans that we are still not really having a dig in the final third and too much of passing it back to the keeper. Boyle put in a decent and unselfish shift today. The team are beginning to gel well under Montgomery.

Kenny: A good result but we almost shot ourselves in the foot. Why do we keep trying to play football across our six-yard box? We don’t have the players to do it. We gave away a silly penalty but Marshall made a fine save. Lots of good things but these mistakes are being made week in, week out. Come on Nick get it sorted! Good result though and well done.

John: Much improved team performance from Hibs, playing better every week and defending well. Aberdeen had chances, but like us in the semi final, couldn’t finish them off.

Aldo: A crucial result, given that it moves us further away from Aberdeen and keeps Hearts and St Mirren in our sights. It was a weird reversal of the recent cup semi, where we were the better side and lost. Grateful to David Marshall, who was magnificent. And it was wonderful to see Dylan Vente score again - he’s been great for us but he needed a goal.

Allan: Wasn’t one of our better performances but a new quality & mentality seems to be creeping in to this Hibs side under Montgomery that allows us to grind out results. We’ve played better & come away with nothing so a great three points yesterday. Although Marshall (rightly so) got MOTM, shout out to Boyle who appears back to his quality ways after injury.

Were you at Easter Road to see Hibs beat Aberdeen, or were you following along from home?

Either way, we want your thoughts on the game and who impressed you.

Have your say here.

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery tells BBC Scotland: "It wasn't an easy game. Aberdeen are a good side and they played well today.

"I thought in patches we were very good. In patches we switched off and lost concentration but David Marshall stood strong when we needed him.

"David is a top class goalkeeper and a top class human being. He's a great team-mate and it's great for me to have a calm, cool head like that.

"We didn't click as much as a we have recently but we are always a threat up front with the pace of Boyle and Jair is getting better every week. We know we can score goals against any team."

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George O'Neill, BBC Sport Scotland

When these two sides met in the Viaplay Cup semi-final, Hibs played the better football, but lacked an end product and were suckered by Miovski's late strike.

This game was the exact opposite. Aberdeen played some good stuff, opening the home defence up with relative ease, but when their shots weren't blazed high and wide, they were either thwarted by Marshall or struck the woodwork.

You only have to have a quick glance at the stats to see how wasteful Aberdeen were. Their 23 efforts at goal had a total xG value of 3.27, but only five of them were on target.

Miovski is who Robson would have wanted the chances to fall to, and the North Macedonia striker could have scored at least three on another day, but his woes in front of goal summed up a disappointing day.

Hibs were below par but found a way to win. It's a quality that they simply did not have under Montgomery's predecessor Lee Johnson, and it bodes well for their prospects this season.

In a league where most teams struggle to win regularly, grinding out victories is priceless. Hibs did so last weekend at Dens Park, and again here.

Hibernian will be without suspended Lewis Miller and long-term injury absentees Chris Cadden, Jake Doyle-Hayes, Adam Le Fondre and Harry McKirdy.

Wide player Shayden Morris remains out for Aberdeen.

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It took Josh Campbell a while to win over new head coach Nick Montgomery, but the midfielder has started the past three games for Hibernian, pitching in with two goals and a clever dummy 'assist' at Dens Park last week.

The 23-year-old has an impressive engine and a knack for arriving in the penalty box at the right time.

He can also boast the best overperformance of expected goals in the Premiership this season, with his three goals coming from an xG of just 0.79.

Aberdeen visit Easter Road on Sunday and Campbell hit a remarkable five goals in two home games against the Dons last season.

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Hibs goalkeeper David Marshall is hoping his side can get one back over Aberdeen after their Viaplay Cup semi-final defeat.

The Leith club dominated proceedings at Hampden in November, but failed to capitalise on a man advantage when Jack MacKenzie saw red, and were ultimately undone by a Bojan Miovski strike.

“I think everybody recognised we played well in the semi-final and we were unfortunate that the goal they scored was a counter-attack,” said the keeper.

“We also played well at Pittodrie when Dave Gray was in [caretaker] charge so hopefully we can take some confidence from that. Off the back of a couple of wins, we should be in a good place.

“We know Aberdeen really well. They’ve been quite consistent in playing their back three and they’re a real counter-attacking threat.

“[Bojan] Miovski leads that and links play really well so he’s a dangerman. They’re a real threat at set-plays. They’re a tough team to play and they rested some players on Thursday [in their Europa Conference League match away to HJK Helsinki] so the majority of their starting XI should be fresh. It should be a good game.

“We’ve had a lot of draws in the league but the performances have been really good.

“We’ve dropped some late points, we could have at least five extra points on the board but I think you’re seeing signs of what the manager and the staff have been working on for the past 10 or 11 weeks."

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Hibs boss Nick Montgomery says his side are looking to "continue momentum" as they welcome Aberdeen to Easter Road on Sunday.

The Englishman's team climbed into the top six with a win at Dens Park last weekend to make it five Premiership games in a row without defeat.

He said: "It's been a good week, analysing the performance against Dundee which I think was really good. A lot of positives to take from that game, Christian Doidge coming back and off the bench."

"I love playing at Easter Road in front of the home fans. Hopefully, the snow disappears by then and there's no issues with the game.

"The boys loving playing in front of their home fans and we look forward to continuing the momentum heading into next week.

"They're used to playing midweek games and playing in European competition. I'm sure they'll come well prepared but we're just focused on ourselves.

"They're quite physical, we expect them coming to Easter Road looking to get a result. There's never any easy games in this competition."

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery has been chatting ahead of Sunday's encounter with Aberdeen at Easter Road.

Here's the key lines...

• They've enjoyed "a good week" of preparation that involved analysing the "positives" from the win at Dundee last week.

• Talks up playing in front of their home fans, says he "loves" Easter Road and they're looking to continue momentum.

• The snow hasn't affected their preparations much, beyond "a few little snowball fights".

• Expecting "physical" contest with an Aberdeen side who will be coming to win in Leith.

• No injury updates, but does say Harry McKirdy and Chris Cadden are hoped to be back in training in "January/February".

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