Hanley’s goal ‘felt irrelevant’ after Welsh defeat

GRANT Hanley admits the pride of scoring on his first competitive start for Scotland was largely tarnished by the fact Friday night’s World Cup qualifier resulted in a demoralising defeat by Wales.

With his family in attendance, the scene was set for Hanley to emerge as an unlikely hero when he headed Gordon Strachan’s team in front on the stroke of half-time. Instead, the evening ended in despair for the 21-year-old Blackburn Rovers centre-back as Wales, who had outclassed Scotland for much of the game, came back after the break to win 2-1 and kill off any lingering hopes the beleaguered Scots may have had of reviving their qualification bid.

Hanley said: “I went from the high of scoring to being really disappointed by the end, to the point where the goal felt irrelevant. To have scored and won the game would have been a great feeling, but, looking back, even accounting for the bad result, I can still be proud to have scored for my country at Hampden. My family helped me realise that afterwards. It was a strange feeling because they were really proud of me, but could see I was disappointed when I went up to see them and tried to cheer me up.”

The selection of Hanley, who is still eligible for the Under-21 team, may have come as a surprise to many, but it made sense on the basis that he has been a mainstay for Blackburn this season, while Christophe Berra, a regular during Craig Levein’s time in charge of the national team, has fallen out of favour at Wolves. “I only found out I was starting on the morning of the game and didn’t really expect it, to be honest,” Hanley told the Scottish Football Association’s official website. “I have been grateful to have been part of the group since under Craig Levein and have treated it until now as a learning experience.

“Playing regularly at Blackburn Rovers has helped a lot and gives you half a chance when you come on international duty. Coming away with Scotland is a great honour, especially being so young. Being part of it and playing week in week out in the Championship – which is one of the hardest leagues around – has been a great experience. I played in the Premier League last year and that was terrific but in the Championship we have played Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday for the past five weeks and that is physically and mentally difficult. It is something you have to adjust to and quickly and I feel I have done that.”

Hanley is now hoping to retain his place for tomorrow’s clash with Serbia in Novi Sad, where Scotland, bottom of the group after five games, will go in search of their first win of the campaign. “The table doesn’t make good reading, but the task now is to improve on our standing and to do that we need to get back to winning games again and rebuild our confidence.”