By Brian McLauchlin

Hughes is keen on a swift return to management

Former manager John Hughes is urging Hibernian to give his successor, Colin Calderwood, more time than he had.

"The club needs stability and continuity," said Hughes, who left Easter Road after 17 months in charge.

"You have to give Colin three years. He has to bring one or two of his own players in. Shuffle his pack a bit and he has to be backed to the hilt.

"My frustration is good, bad or indifferent, no matter how it goes, I thought we did a right good job."

Former Falkirk boss Hughes stepped down in early October, with Hibs having picked up five points from their opening seven matches in the Scottish Premier League.

Since then, Hibs have slipped a place in the league to 11th, picking up just three more points.

And those came in a home win against Kilmarnock, overseen by coaches Gareth Evans and Alistair Stevenson.

Calderwood has a record of three straight defeats since arriving in Edinburgh from his coaching post at Newcastle, including a sorry 2-0 reverse in Sunday's Edinburgh derby.

Hughes insists that he is not bitter about the way he left the club. However, he was disappointed to lose his job so early in the season and remains proud of his achievements at the club he represented as a player from 1996 to 2000.

The culture at Easter Road has to change but you need time to change it John Hughes

"We got them fourth place in the league and qualified for Europe in our first year in charge," he told BBC Scotland.

"If I asked people at the club, what do you want from me? I possibly surpassed their expectations and we did all this despite after just one week into the job losing our two best players in Rob Jones and Steven Fletcher.

"I made mistakes and I have no problem in owning up to that. Probably losing in the Scottish Cup to Ross County was the turning point. But look what happens in the game. They go to Hampden and beat Celtic in the semi-final. That's football.

"My plans were there. I was looking to change the whole culture at the club. Starting at 9.00am and still being there at 4.00pm in the afternoon. During that time the players would be in the gym, doing strength and conditioning then going out onto the training pitch.

"The culture at Easter Road has to change but you need time to change it."

Hibs have struggled to replace the goals of Anthony Stokes

Hughes pointed out that it was his influence that persuaded Anthony Stokes to join Hibs in the summer of 2009 and the striker repaid him with 22 goals.

However, the player was sold to Celtic at the end of the August transfer window and has already hit eight goals for his new employers.

"If I knew four games after we let him go to Celtic that I'd be out of a job, I'd have fought harder to keep him," admitted Hughes, who expressed his desire to return to management.

"But I thought the club would understand that we were losing 22 goals and we would need to batten down the hatches."

Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee is currently feeling the heat after a run of poor results and Hughes has sympathy for his former opponent.

Hughes was in the stand at Celtic Park watching the Dons lose 9-0 and said he understands the pain McGhee is going through.

"I watched the interview with Mark and I could see that he still wants to get up in the morning and take on the challenge and turn that around and that was exactly the same at Hibs.

"All he needs is a board to back him. I took a Falkirk team to Parkhead for a CIS Cup tie and got turned over 8-0. I was under the bed!

"But I still knew where I was going and the board backed me knowing it was work in progress. Two years later we went back and beat Celtic on penalties. That's because I was given the opportunity and the chance by the club."

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