Hibs teen aiming for Euro glory

The Easter Road youngster was unable to prevent Arbroath from crashing into the Third Division as they lost a play-off with near-neighbours Forfar.

Booth, who'd spent the second half of the season on loan at Gayfield Park, was given special permission to play in the Angus derby by Scotland Under-19 boss Billy Stark before joining up with his team-mates to fly to Croatia for the elite stage of their European Championship campaign.

The squad's travel plans were thrown into chaos yesterday when volcanic ash saw their flight from Gatwick to Zurich cancelled. The team were set to arrive in Croatia last night.

Now Booth hopes he can ease the pain by helping the young Scots top their qualifying group following matches with Montenegro (tomorrow), Belgium and the host nation.

He said: "It's never nice to be relegated and although we only lost four or five games while I was there, it was a shame that we went down, especially losing to Forfar in a derby.

"I felt I learned a lot playing for Arbroath. It was a lot different to playing for the Under-19s at Hibs and it was a real eye-opener. The players were playing for win bonuses and they all had jobs outside football."

Today, Booth hopes this week's Under-19 tournament will help pave the way for a place in Hibs boss John Hughes' plans for next season, the Scots needing to claim first place to make further progress in Europe.

Booth, who has been joined in the squad by Hibs team-mate Scott Smith, told Hibs' website:

"Hopefully, I can get a good pre-season under my belt, impress the manager and get some more first team experience."