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Key to Hibs Euro play-off progress identified amid 'grateful' comment as nightmare overnight travel dodged From Kosovo to North Macedonia and now Belgium, Easter Road side are on fixture treadmill Hibs boss David Gray believes the Easter Road board are giving his team the best possible chance of making European history - by paying extra to prevent early-season travel burnout among players facing eight games in 29 days. Gray and his team stayed in Skopje after last night’s UEFA Conference League win over North Macedonian opposition KF Shkendija, the Scottish Premiership club stumping up for an extra overnight and flying back to Edinburgh this morning. Premier Sports Cup clash on Sunday With Partick Thistle at home in the Premier Sports Cup on Sunday before they jet out to Belgium for the first leg of their play-off against Gent, getting the right sort of rest could make all the difference as Hibs look to make the European league/group stages for the first time ever. A grateful Gray said: “We structure it depending on the opposition, airports and what it’s like travelling back. “We are very fortunate that the ownership spend what they spend to get us back properly. “That helps make sure the recovery time is right, so we’re not heading back into Edinburgh at 6 am with the boys not having had any sleep. “So we stay the extra night at times in the hotel but there are a lot of variables which go into it. And it’s all geared towards giving the players the best preparation for the next game. “We are grateful to the club for putting up the finance to do it and the staff all pulling in the same direction. They are the ones who turn all the players around, the medical staff, the strength and conditioning department. “They get the players ready so we as coaches can do the work with them. Everyone is pulling in the same direction and when you get that you have more chance of having a successful group.” History made - and more beckons Having become the first Hibs side in 50 years to qualify for European football in consecutive seasons, the current team are focused on eclipsing last summer’s exploits, when they missed out on a spot in the Conference League proper after an extra-time loss to Legia in Warsaw. Proud of at least matching that achievement, Gray revealed: “I said to the players before the game this is what it’s about - enjoy these moments. “It’s relentless, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday but it’s what big teams do. I was only slightly involved in it as a player and was fortunate to do that, but as a coach you certainly don’t enjoy it as much as you should. “Players need to remember it’s a short career and opportunities like this doesn’t happen all the time. Don’t underestimate what they’re doing, back-to-back European play-offs and even back-to-back Europe. “There’s a lot more to come, hopefully. We have a huge test again on Sunday so we’ll need to be ready for it. “We want to progress in another competition now. Momentum is key and what helps is we rotated a little bit on Sunday and still got a positive performance. “It won’t be a case of us thinking because we’re playing a team in the Championship we can do that, absolutely not. It’s going to be a difficult task, Partick have started really well and they have a lot of pace and threats in their team. “They had a really positive result against Livingston last weekend so they’ll come into this one rested. We need to recover quickly, see who is in the best shape and decide what’s the best team to put out there."