'I've worked on not beating myself up': Ex-Hibs winger Daryl Horgan explains his improvement since leaving Easter Road

Former Hibs winger Daryl Horgan reveals he’s been working on the mental side of his game since leaving Easter Road as he credits ‘not beating himself up’ as one of the contributing factors in his recent improvement.

Former Hibs winger Daryl Horgan. Picture: SNS

The 28-year-old returned to the Ireland team last month for the Nations League double-header with Wales and Finland having failed to appear for his country in over two years.

The attacker has been playing regularly in the English Championship for newly-promoted Wycombe Wanderers after being allowed to leave Easter Road earlier this season with one year still remaining on his contract.

He’s since earned his recall to the international set-up under new boss Stephen Kenny. The former Dunfermline Athletic manager took over from Mick McCarthy earlier this year.

Horgan himself admitted in August that his performances for Hibs, whom he joined from Preston North End in August 2018, hadn’t been good enough to improve upon his tally of six caps.

He said: “I didn't play under Mick McCarthy at all and you can say what you want about Mick, but I wasn't playing well enough to get in the Irish squad. When you're not in there you need to be doing much better than the players that are already in there, and I wasn't.”

Ahead of Ireland’s friendly match with England this Thursday, Horgan revealed that looked within himself to make the necessary changes to get his international career back on track.

He said: "I used to be very, very hard on myself and you see that in my game, there's no two ways about I, so, I've worked on that.

"I've worked on improving and not beating myself up, so that's definitely helped. It was very tough because it's almost ingrained in your head from when I was younger. I'm still not perfect by any stretch, but there's definite improvements."

Though Horgan’s time at Easter Road didn’t live up to the initial hype, he will long be remembered for an excellent double in a 2-1 victory at Tynecastle as Paul Heckingbottom’s men fought back from a goal down to become the first Hibs side to win at their neighbours’ ground in six years.

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