Dumbarton manager Stevie Aitken hailed his players for brushing off their Scottish Cup disappointment by dumping high-flying Hibs on Saturday.

The Sons went down to a heavy 5-0 defeat to Dundee during the week, but showed no ill-effects as they raced into a three-goal lead against Alan Stubbs’ side.

Hibs pulled two goals back to set up a nervy finale at the Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium, but Aitken’s men hung on for a famous win, their second over Hibs this season.

Aitken said: “When we lost five goals at Dundee people were asking questions.

“But we trust the players in that dressing room and we asked them again to come in today and give it everything they’ve got, and they did that. I thought that to a man, every one of them was outstanding.

“We had to dig in deep during the second half, Hibs threw everything at us, and credit to them for coming back into it.

“A lot of teams at three-nil down wouldn’t have fought their way back into it, but Alan had instilled belief in them that they could.

“In the last 10 minutes you might even have said it looked as though they deserved something, so it was a massive three points for us.”

Aitken says that his players deserve huge credit for putting a difficult period behind them and digging deep when Hibs laid siege.

He admitted: “It’s been a difficult week. We were in good form up until the Morton game, and then we had the difficulty of the cup game during the week.

“We asked the players to respond and they done that magnificently today, and over the piece I think we shaded it. This is a division that’s unforgiving with the quality that’s in it.

“It was nerve-wracking towards the end, but what we have got here is a good group of players who are honest, and they work so hard for each other, for the club and for me.

“They got their rewards today.”