IT is unusual to hear a Hibs manager imploring his team to be more like Hearts but then Neil Lennon has never done things by the book. The Northern Irishman was as good as his word when it came to his promise to bring the thunder back during four years at Celtic Park but as far as his new job goes this must be the calm before the storm.

After a gruelling spell personally and professionally at Bolton Wanderers, the 45-year-old feels invigorated by his new challenge amid the idyllic surroundings of the Easter Road club's sun-kissed East Mains training ground. Having made just a few additions - most notably former Wigan striker Grant Holt - the side he inherited from his former team-mate Alan Stubbs at the Scottish Cup holders performed creditably in narrow defeat against Brondby in their Europa League qualifying tie.

After some further last minute adjustments in Sunday's friendly against Shrewsbury Town it will be into the serious business next Saturday with a difficult away Ladbrokes Championship assignment against last year's play-off bogey team Falkirk. Scotland's second tier, a bit like England's, has a nasty habit of bringing pre-season favourites down a peg or two but Lennon feels that the way their city rivals Hearts negotiated the division in 2014-15 is a reasonable blueprint for what he is trying to achieve. The Tynecastle side won the league that year by 21 points from Hibs, with Rangers 25 back, then hardly skipped a beat on their return to the Premiership last season.

“It’s a good template and something we should look at," said Lennon. "Even although Hearts had Rangers in the league it was seamless for them then they had another good season last year. Hibs fans may not like this, but I think that’s a good marker in how to deal with the Championship. If the bookies have made us favourites then so be it."

Life at East Mains thus far is considerably quieter than his past life at Lennoxtown, but Lennon knows things will heat up again soon enough. In fact, it is just possible it has all been going too well. He is wary of the counterpoint of his time at at Celtic where, as he ruefully points out, "rubbish" pre-seasons often harvested decent campaigns.

"It is night and day," said Lennon, about his new job at Hibs. "I am enjoying the surroundings and the environment. It feels like a good fit - although I will let you know in a few games' time. There is a familiarity for me here and I have enjoyed the reaction from the players.

"But I loved what I did at Celtic as well," he added. "I wouldn't swap that for anything. It was organised chaos at times, but you do really love the intensity of it. You do miss that at times but I think this is going to be quite an intense job as well. It is a big city club and there are big expectations on us as well. So it will be busy."

Falkirk away on the opening day, for instance, has the look of one of those classic opening day potential banana skins, or at least it would be if Hibs weren't still fired up by the perceived injustice of their crushing last minute defeat at this venue in last year's premiership play-off semi-final. The match will bring Lennon into close contact once more with Peter Houston, a a sometime adversary during his days at Dundee United, then a close colleague who worked alongside him in the Celtic scouting department.

"There was a great rivalry there last year and at the end of the day Falkirk knocked us out," said Lennon. "So there might be something still there with the players in terms of an edge.

"Peter did a great job for us at Celtic for six or seven months and I got to know him really well," he added. "We had a run-in a couple of times when he was at Dundee United - which was par for the course for me! But I got to know him really well and really enjoyed his company. Even when I was at Bolton which was a sticky period he was sending messages of encouragement.

"He did a brilliant job last season with limited resources and is very canny. He knows the environment really well and he knows how to get success at that level. I think he can get success at a higher level as well - he has already shown that. There's guys like Jim Duffy and Ian McCall as well. You find that in the English Championship as well, guys who know the culture, people like Neil Warnock who have done it time and time again. There are plenty of managers in the Scottish championships who are the same."

Dundee United and Falkirk may be best of the rest but how Lennon fares on his return to the Scottish game will be one of the stories of this season. "He has come in and laid the law down and told us what he expects from us," said Darren McGregor. "You’ve seen him as a player and a manager so you know what he is about. What you see is what you get with him and if you drop the standards he will be on you. He can accept a bad game but it is about your appetite, your application, your desire, everything he showed as player. That keeps us on our toes."