“In the past at this club, there has been a habit of setting this target or that and, if we haven’t fulfilled them, it’s been billed as a major crisis, so I’m happy to agree with the manager’s thinking,” he said.

“It’s been a very good month since he came in and, even in the one game we lost at Dunfermline, I felt we probably played our best football and were a bit unfortunate to go down to a couple of bad goals.

“How we should be regarding the three wins we’ve had is as a platform on which we can build. It’s no more than that and we should not get carried away.”

Stillie admits that calm approach is helped by the prospect of playing a Hibs side who are generally regarded as the best footballing side in the SPL, and who have lost just once in 11 competitive outings on their own turf this term.

“This is definitely the hardest test we’ve faced since the manager came in and Hibs are the form team in the country at the moment,” he said.

“They were unlucky not to beat Celtic on Sunday and they are a side whose forte is definitely to attack. From open play they are dangerous all over the pitch and, this season, I think they’ve even improved at set plays — their defenders are big and pose problems when they come forward.

“We, though, are going in with confidence after the last results and, while I’ll repeat that it’s only a start for us, what the last few results have shown people is that we have a decent set of players here.”

Meanwhile, despite Hibs firing on all cylinders at the moment, United’s manager won’t be setting his team out solely with the intention of trying to hold out for a single point.

And, while much has been said of the Easter Road side in recent weeks, the Tangerines’ recent record stands favourably with any SPL outfit.

“I rate Hibs extremely highly and, along with Celtic, they are probably the in-form team in the country,” said Craig.

“But we certainly won’t be going there with the intention of sitting in soaking up pressure and just defending. To be honest, I’m not at the stage where I would be 100% convinced we’d be able to do that.

“We’ll be looking to ask a few questions of Hibs, have a go and see where it takes us.

“Defensively, this will be our toughest test to date. We’ve been playing quite well and, bizarrely, probably the best we’ve played was against Dunfermline — and we lost.

“But tomorrow will be another test and we have to step up all over the park.”

Defenders David McCracken and Garry Kenneth have both stepped up training following injuries and, provided they suffer no reaction, will be available for selection.

Left-sided wing-back Steven Robb has also returned to full training, although he still remains a couple of weeks away from first-team consideration.

It’s unlikely a loan deal for Lee Wilkie will be concluded before tomorrow’s game. The former Dundee man has been linked with a short-term move to Livingston.