Hibs’ defender Darren McGregor believes that he has grasped the chance given to him by Jack Ross and is hoping to stay in the team.
McGregor has played a limited role in Hibs’ success this season, only starting in the Betfred Cup games whilst his defensive partners Ryan Porteous and Paul Hanlon have been away on international duty however he was returned to the team on Wednesday where he was the man of the match against Rangers.
He retained his place in the starting line-up against Dundee United and repaid the Head Coach’s faith with a superbly taken goal to give his side a first-half lead.
He then played a leaders’ role in the heart of the defence as Hibs kept their 11th clean sheet of the season.
After the final whistle McGregor told Hibs TV: “I think off the back of the last two games, having put so much into them and coming away with zero points it was good to finally get the three points here and keep a clean sheet and move on to the next one.
“I’ve came in from the cold and the gaffer has given me an opportunity. I feel as though I have grasped that and acquitted myself well over the last two games so hopefully I can stay in the team and we can keep winning and I can keep scoring goals like that.
“A lot of fans can make judgements on what they see on a Saturday but they sometimes forget about that hard work that’s done during the week. I train every day and never not play. I try to motivate the guys but it is sometimes difficult when you are training every day and at the end of the week you look forward to the game but when that’s not there it can sometimes be difficult but I love playing with Hibs.
“I live coming in and training and I love all the lads and I’ll do it as long as my body allows.
“Between Doigy (Josh Doig) Porto (Ryan Porteous) Hammer (Jamie Gullan), there’s a few of them that are light years ahead of where I was at their age so if I can help them on their ay to success I think I am long enough in the tooth to do that.
“We have a good group of senior older pros who are on hand to help whenever they need it so we are just doing our jobs.
“All results are built on the back of a strong foundation and if you can keep clean sheets you give yourself a really good chance and luckily today we kept a clean sheet and came away with the victory.
“I just shut my eyes and hit it as hard as I could. I was thankful that Jacko (Jackson Irvine) laid it back to me. It may be similar to the one I scored against Raith Rovers all those years ago . I had one thing on my mind and that was to get a good connection and see where it landed and thankfully it landed in the back of the net.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
