Grant Hanley isn't the emotional type, writes Scott McDermott in the USA. The big Scotland centre-back would kick his own Granny if he thought it would get him a clean sheet. So he's hardly likely to get teary-eyed when it comes to playing in a World Cup. But when the hard-as-nails defender emerged from the away dressing-room at the Boston Stadium late on Saturday night after Scotland's 1-0 victory over Haiti, he had to compose himself. Because as he tried to reflect on what had just happened - and what he'd just experienced on the greatest stage of all - the reality hadn't quite sunk in yet.
Scotland had just won a game at the World Cup for the first time in 36 years, thanks to John McGinn's solitary goal. In front of a 30 thousand-strong Tartan Army, Steve Clarke's side had gone top of Group C after one game at the tournament. And Hanley had played a huge part in keeping a clean sheet against the Caribbean minnows. On top of all that, the 34-year-old was reunited with his kids at full-time, who have travelled to the USA to see him play. He embraced son Albie and daughter Lottie at the end before conducting his media duties.
So even for a grizzly, seasoned Scotland campaigner like Hanley, it was hard to take it all in. He said: "It's hard to say how I feel because it's raw and I've just been with my weans, so I need to think about what I'm going to say. It was a great night for us, in terms of the result. Because this was a must-win game coming into it - and we've won it. That's the only thing that matters. I was quite emotional seeing my family, aye. It was amazing. Having played in major tournaments before, 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."
When the World Cup fixtures came out, most people - quite rightly - felt they were in Scotland's favour with Haiti up first, before Morocco and Brazil. But the flip side to that is, Clarke's boys were expected to win comfortably and get their campaign off to a flyer. Anyone who has watched Haiti would have known that it wasn't going to be easy. But maybe that pressure to get three points resulted in a below-par performance from the Scots. After McGinn's first-half goal, they couldn't find a second and late on they needed Hanley to be a rock at the back as they held on to their precious victory.
He said: "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. 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. It was maybe a bit tense and a bit cagey. I actually thought we were good until we scored. Then we came off it a wee bit. Maybe subconsciously we tried to protect it a wee bit. I've said before that I don't really enjoy speaking about myself too much but I do enjoy defending. I'm a bit old school that way. Defending the box suits me. But it's difficult for me to put into words exactly 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."
The scale and magnitude of the occasion in Boston wasn't lost on Hanley either. He's been at two Euro Finals for Scotland but this was on a different level in the US at the home of the New England Patriots. Clarke's side will be back at the same venue for their next Group C clash with Morocco on Friday. Hanley expects a totally different type of game against the Africans and accepts that Scotland will have to play better if they're to pick up a point or more which could secure historic progress into the World Cup knock-out phase. The Hibs man said: "I'm sure we will play better. We'll have a wee bit of time to recover now and 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. And there's no doubt we'll be ready for that. In terms of the occasion, it was surreal. In November when we qualified this felt a million miles away but it sneaks up on you quickly. You go through the pre-camp and then it's here. It STILL feels surreal now but this is what you dream of."
Hanley didn't just put in a solid defensive shift, highlighted by a phenomenal first-half block to deny Haiti a goal from close range after Scotland keeper Angus Gunn had spilled a shot. The big centre-half also had a hand in our winning goal. It was his long, raking ball up to striker Che Adams which started the move that led to McGinn netting Scotland's first World Cup goal since Craig Burley against Norway at France 98. Afterwards, 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 and 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, it hits someone on the knee and goes in. Sometimes that's just the way it works."
