Hibs skipper Jones hit with two-match ban for crucial Euro run-in

HIBS' European dream was dealt another blow today as it was revealed skipper Rob Jones will miss two vital matches during the UEFA Cup run-in.

The towering defender picked up his sixth league booking in the dying seconds of the defeat by Rangers to push him through the SFA's disciplinary points limit, triggering an automatic two-game ban.

Jones will be available for Saturday's crunch clash with Motherwell, who are battling to keep their Euro hopes alive after going down 2-0 to Dundee United, who have now moved into pole position in the three-horse race.

But the influential stopper will then be forced to sit out the visit of St Mirren the following weekend and the first match after the SPL split against opponents yet to be decided.

However, while admitting it was disappointing to lose his captain at such a stage in the season, Hibs boss Mixu Paatelainen insisted he still had plenty of cover with both Martin Canning and Ian Murray having slotted in alongside Chris Hogg in central defence this season.

Jones had been walking a disciplinary tightrope since being shown a yellow card in the derby defeat by Hearts more than two months ago but was booked by referee Steve Conroy, who had already noted the names of Easter Road stars Abdel Zarabi and Steven Fletcher, for a challenge on former Hibs team-mate Kevin Thomson as Paatelainen's side went down 2-1.

Today Paatelainen, who praised Jones' disciplinary record, said: "It's disappointing to lose a quality player at any time. It's not an ideal situation but those are the rules and we have plenty of quality players who can fill in.

"Rob is a clean player, he always attacks the ball but sometimes you can be a split-second late and you get a booking. Because of that he'll unfortunately miss out on two games."

If that was a touch of bad news, Paatelainen was able to reveal that striker Fletcher is on course to win his first full Scotland cap in Wednesday night's friendly against Croatia despite coming off injured at Ibrox.

Fletcher, who has already been promised at least part of the game at Hampden by new Scotland boss George Burley, was forced to quit 15 minutes from time to be replaced by Abdessalam Benjelloun, who provided the pass for Dean Shiels to grab a consolation goal after Jean-Claude Darcheville and Nacho Novo had scored for Rangers.

The revelation he had suffered a back injury immediately raised questions over his fitness, but today Paatelainen said: "He will be okay. He landed awkwardly and felt a bit of discomfort but it was nothing." Meanwhile, Paatelainen admitted he was disappointed with another poor performance at Ibrox following their Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Rangers in Glasgow a fortnight ago.

"We were not sharp enough, we did not take care with our passes and once again we did not really create enough chances," he said. "They wanted to win it more than us and that's a disappointing thing to say."

Hibs' SFA Youth Cup quarter-final against Celtic on Wednesday has been postponed at the request of the Glasgow club.