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Rumours were rife in Edinburgh that Riordan and manager Colin Calderwood did not see eye to eye and that the player would seek to leave when his current agreement expires in the summer. He was at pains to point out that the opposite is the case.

“I’m happy at Hibs, I enjoy it, I’m from Edinburgh and I support Hibs so it’s good for me,” he said.

“Hopefully, I can stay on beyond the end of the season, I want to stay at Hibs throughout my career but that will need to happen at the end of the season.

“I have had wee talks with the manager - I think everybody has - but they said they would decide later on. I’m happy playing football.”

Riordan also publicly backed Calderwood, who had left him out of the starting line-up for the three previous games, and insisted there is no bad blood between them.

“I’m glad for the gaffer, obviously,” he said. “He has been through a tough time since he has come in.

“But he’s got the players in he wants now, and we have got that first win so it has obviously worked.

“You want to do well for him because he is such a brilliant guy, one of the nicest managers I’ve had.

“Everyone gets on really well with him, he is a really nice guy and you don’t want to see bad results go against him.

“I was really happy for him after this win: it means he can have a good weekend and we can all look forward to next week.”

Riordan looked drained after claiming his first win bonus in 13 matches, and he conceded that joy was not the prominent emotion when the final whistle blew.

“It was a sense of relief, to be honest,” he said. “It was a good feeling at the end of the match.

“We knew this was a big game for us at the bottom of the table and it has pushed us up the league a bit.

“I think we had gone something like eleven hours without scoring a goal so now we have got those goals I’m hoping more will come along.

“It’s important we build on this now. We want to stay in the SPL: that’s our aim.

“Given the run we have been on and the fact we are down there people were saying we were relegation candidates.

“We’ve got to get points on the board now. We have won an important game and we need to carry that on.”

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