Hibs defender Grant Hanley is eager to end a positive week on a high after a ‘rollercoaster’ international break with the Scotland National Team.
Hanley helped Scotland qualify for their first World Cup in 28 years, starting both matches over the international break against Greece and Denmark.
The Scots triumphed over Denmark – winning 4-2 in dramatic fashion – and sealed a place at next year’s World Cup finals in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
But it’s back to league business today as Dundee visit Easter Road.
Speaking to Hibs TV, Hanley said: “Dundee have picked up some big results this season, they will be hard to play against and we know what to expect. First of all, we will need to concentrate on ourselves and focus on what we have done well recently.
“We got a good result before the international break, so we will be looking to build on that, especially playing at Easter Road.
“It has been a bit of a rollercoaster, to be honest. We had a disappointing result in Greece and then learned that we had been helped out with the Belarus result, and it set up a monster of a game on Tuesday night.
“I think the game speaks for itself, it was crazy – but to come out the other end with the result we wanted and to qualify for the World Cup is surreal. It is very difficult to put into words.
“The game in itself, the aftermath and the way people speak to you after the game is incredible. We’ve had so many words of congratulations and things like that. I think when you finish playing, I will probably appreciate it a bit more – as players now it is onto the next thing and performing at Club level.”
Hanley started against Greece, but was due to be on the bench for the Denmark game. However, an injury to John Souttar in the warm-up, propelled the Hibs centre-back into the starting XI, and he did not disappoint.
“For me personally, I went from not starting the game to getting thrown in at the last minute – so it was a rollercoaster on that front.
“You go through your normal preparations; the starters and the subs warm up differently. It was towards the end of warm-up that I got called over, and I was told that I was going to be in from the start. I had to quickly get myself up to speed – did a couple of passes, a couple of sprints and a couple of headers and I was ready to go.”
With the World Cup around the corner, attention now switches to Club football and securing a place in the squad.
“All the lads that have been regulars in the Scotland squad, or players who have been involved in squads before or on the fringes will all be pushing to get their name in the squad for next summer.
“That will be a massive goal and incentive for everyone to play well and push themselves at Club level to give yourself a chance of going to a World Cup.”
