World Cup win left Hibs warrior Hanley 'raw and emotional' as hydration break tweak credited for historic goal
Former Easter Road great McGinn’s goal delivered first win in 36 years
Fearsome Hibs warrior Grant Hanley has confessed that a family reunion with his children left him feeling “raw and emotional” in the aftermath of Scotland’s historic first World Cup win in 36 years. And the Easter Road stalwart has revealed how a hydration break rethink prompted his decision to go long in pursuit of John McGinn’s breakthrough goal against Haiti.
Hanley’s pass to Che Adams led to McGinn scoring with a deflected shot in Boston, sending the Tartan Army wild on the nation’s return to the World Cup for the first time since 1998. The 1-0 win was Scotland’s first victory at the world’s biggest tournament since beating Sweden 2-1 at Italia 90.
McGinn goal sparked scenes
Speaking right after the game in the early hours of Sunday morning UK time, Hanley admitted that a post-match meeting with six-year-old son Albie and two-year-old daughter Lottie had left him struggling for words, the grizzled 34-year-old centre-half confessing: “I’m finding a bit hard to know what to say right now. I’ve just seen my weans and it all feels a bit raw. It was a great night for us in terms of the result, because we knew it was a must-win game and we got the win.
“I was quite emotional seeing my family, aye. It was amazing. When you play tournaments you’re away in a hotel for long periods, you spend a lot of time away from them. So when you've got young kids, it's really special to have them there, especially after a positive result.
“There was a lot of pressure on us. But when you play on the international stage there’s always pressure. And when you come into games like this where the expectation is to win, the pressure’s a little bit greater.
Victory in ‘must win’ game
“So sometimes, winning boils down to a performance that isn’t really free and isn't as flowing as you’d like it to be. Maybe a bit tense and maybe a bit cagey.
“I actually thought we were good until we scored, then we maybe came off it a wee bit. Maybe subconsciously we tried to protect it a wee bit. It’s hard to put into words the feeling this has given us.
“All I know is that we had a must win game and we won it. That's the main thing.”
Revealing how a tweak in tactics had led to the breakthrough, Hanley said: “It came just after the water break, when we had a word with ourselves. We knew Haiti had got their press right. so we thought we’d go a bit longer, stretch it a bit, maybe make a bit more space for ourselves in the middle of the pitch.
“So that’s what I did, went a wee bit longer - and obviously from there you've got boys further up the pitch with that kind of quality. Che brings it down then brings Ben (Gannon Doak) into play.
“Next thing it falls to McGinn, who kicks it into the ground and hits someone on the knee and it goes in. Sometimes that's just the way it works.”
The big defender deflected praise for his own last ditch defending during a second-half onslaught by Haiti, saying only: “I think I’ve said before that I don’t really enjoy speaking myself too much but, I do enjoy defending. I’m a bit old school that way.”
And he admitted that Scotland will need to up their game against reigning AFCON champions Morocco in Friday night’s second Group C fixture, confidently predicting: “I’m sure we will. We’ll have a wee bit of time to recover, to let the dust settle, then we’ll go through it to see what we’ve done well and what we could have done better.
“What’s for certain is that the challenges coming up will be totally different to what we faced against Haiti. There’s also no doubt we’ll be ready for that.”