Scotland's Jack Hendry believes success against Hungary will seal Euro's progress

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Scotland's Jack Hendry believes success against Hungary will seal Euro progress  20/06/2024  Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

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00:00Jack, do you have any further reflections after sleeping on what happened last night

00:21and the performance that Scotland put in?

00:24Yeah, obviously it was an action-packed evening, a very emotional evening.

00:28We felt that we obviously had to go out there and put a performance on, I think we did that.

00:33The fans last night were obviously incredible, from the National Anthem to their lap of honour

00:38at the end, I thought they were excellent in that 12th man for us, so they really pushed

00:42us on and they're going to be vital for us moving forward in this tournament and hopefully

00:47that's going to be a bit more after Sunday.

00:50Just tell us about the contrast, waking up after that Switzerland game and the feeling

00:53given what happened in Munich?

00:56Yeah, obviously a massive contrast and hopefully we can continue this momentum now.

00:59It feels good, we felt we did ourselves a bit of justice last night in the performance

01:04and hopefully we made the country a wee bit more prouder than what they felt as well after

01:09that evening in Germany.

01:11So yeah, it's a lot to look forward to now, obviously it's in our hands going into that

01:15hungry game and it's something to really relish.

01:19So much improvement, but where do you feel Scotland can still improve and where do you

01:22feel you might need to improve going into this hungry game?

01:25Yeah, obviously today we'll analyse that, we'll look at the game, what we did wrong,

01:30what we can do better on and what can we improve and we'll sit down, get together, look at

01:34that and see how we can take the best step forward moving into the hungry game.

01:40How big a blow will it be to have no Kieran Tierney for the hungry game?

01:44Yeah, obviously Kieran will be a miss, hopefully the injury's not too bad.

01:50The squad rallied around him last night, obviously not nice to see, but I'm sure the physio staff

01:57on that will assess that and see what extent of the injury is, but one of our strengths

02:05is our squad and I thought Scotty came in last night and did extremely well when fitted

02:09into that because it's not easy to come into such a pressurised game like that in that

02:13stadium and do so well, so there's ready-made replacements there if Kieran can't make the game.

02:20Given you got that point, do you feel the hand of history now that you can go on and

02:24make this, you can get the win and it's clear you have to go and win the game now,

02:27does that help as well? There's no two ways about it, you have to win.

02:31Yeah, I mean the squad was well aware of coming into the tournament that we'd never got out

02:36of a group before, so definitely the squad is hungry to change that and if we were to

02:43take the last game coming into it, that it was in our hands to get those three points,

02:47then probably we would have taken it, so the squad are well aware of that and we're more

02:52than determined to make history on Sunday against Hungary. Jack, you were saying there

02:57that one of the strengths is the depth of the squad, but obviously if any team misses

03:02three of their defenders that might be starting, four if you include two of the right backs,

03:07it must be a problem, how's it been for you and how's it been for the squad as a whole

03:11just to cope with that constant changes and people missing out? Yeah, no problem whatsoever,

03:16as I said we've got a very strong squad, the defenders that have stepped in have done

03:20extremely well and I'm sure that will be the same case against Hungary. Every time that we've

03:25needed to use boys in different positions or whatever it may be, they've stepped up to the

03:30mark and they know how much it means to represent their country and I think that shows with

03:35the recent results that we've had. When we look at the backline that will be lining up on Sunday,

03:41you'll be obviously one of the senior boys in the backline, do you feel that now you're

03:44one of the senior players amongst the squad and is that something that you relish? Yeah,

03:49I think so, I mean obviously I've been fortunate enough to have a fair amount of caps now and it

03:53was an important part in the qualifying campaign and I've been exposed to big occasions and for

03:59me now it's obviously trying to help the squad as much as possible to see how far we can go and

04:04hopefully that'll be a memorable night against Hungary. I think I'll start it for you Jack,

04:10international level against Hungary the last time you played them, can you take us back to

04:14that night? Yeah, good memories, I think if I remember correctly we won there but I think it's

04:21always a special moment when you make your debut for your nation and it was a memorable night for

04:25me and my family, extremely proud and yeah I mean I'll be relishing the chance to hopefully play

04:30against them on Sunday and the same result will do I think. What were you thinking about at that

04:35point in terms of your international future? What, when I played? Yeah, I mean for me obviously it

04:41was just a start, at that point I was obviously just taking in as much as possible and then once

04:46that game had finished the sheer excitement and buzz you had representing your country,

04:51it was just to see how many I could do and fortunate enough I've been able to represent

04:54my country many times after that and hopefully our case I will be able to represent them many more.

04:59On that night there was about eight or nine players who were still involved, who are still

05:03involved last night, how beneficial is that to the country? Yeah massively, I think one of our

05:12main attributes is the squad charisma and the togetherness we've got and I think the fact

05:17there's still eight or nine boys within that group that played that hungry because it's a

05:21fair time ago shows that those boys have stayed around, been hungry for success and have managed

05:27to get themselves in this position that we have on Sunday to try and qualify out the group so

05:33it's majorly important to have that squad togetherness and those boys that have had

05:38those experiences. There's two successive European qualifying campaigns, is it just

05:43now about taking that next step and getting through the knockout stages for the first time?

05:47Yeah for sure, that's the squad's ambition, it's been the ambition since we've qualified

05:52and hopefully we can make that fresh and come Sunday against Hungary. Last couple.

05:57You were just talking there about the squad charisma, Jack, have you noticed the difference

06:01this morning? Obviously it was going to be down after that opening night result, have you noticed

06:05the difference? Yeah for sure but also I think it says a lot about the squad that against Germany

06:11obviously we suffered a not too pleasant defeat and I think that also shows last night how much

06:18we can bounce back from adversity and now we've got this momentum going into this game I think

06:23we can use that as well for us so I'm sure that that will put us in good stead. You have to be

06:29wary of Hungary as well because they're sitting on no points but will they be very dangerous,

06:34what do you have to look out for? Yeah for sure, Hungary are a top nation, they're here on merit,

06:39they obviously had a good qualification campaign and also their friendlies have produced some very

06:45good results and they will be determined to get a positive result on Sunday but we'll try our best

06:52to make that not happen and make sure that we come out on top.

06:56Okay, thank you all.

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