WHEN Martin Boyle attended a concert at Wembley with his wife a number of years ago, he could not help looking around the world-famous London stadium and wondering what it would like to play a game of football there one day.
So the Hibernian forward, who is in the Australia squad for the friendly international against England on Sunday, is pinching himself that he now has the opportunity to do exactly that.
Having missed out on the chance to represent the Socceroos in the World Cup in Qatar last year due to a knee injury, he is looking forward to running out at the 90,000 capacity arena enormously.
“The missus and I went to see One Direction at Wembley,” he said. “Now I’m going there to play on the pitch. I never thought I would play there, not in my wildest dreams. I’ve missed a lot of big occasions on the international stage, so this one will be special for me."
Boyle is convinced that Hibs will only be heading in one direction under new manager Nick Montgomery when club football resumes after the international break – up the cinch Premiership table.
The capital club have league games against Rangers at Ibrox and Celtic at Easter Road looming later this month. But Boyle believes they can go into the meetings with the Glasgow giants with confidence with Montgomery in the dugout.
He explained how the furious Englishman had read his charges the riot act at half time in the Edinburgh derby on Saturday and sparked a spectacular second half fightback as a result.
“He was angry,” he said. “You could definitely say that. A few boys got a bollocking.
“There were areas to improve on, for sure. We knew ourselves that the first half hadn’t been good enough. In the middle of the park, we lost the battles, lost the duels. When you go to Tynecastle, you have to win those and get on top of the game.
“So the manager was within his rights to do that, to call us out and demand more. And it worked. The half time talk made a difference, clearly. We were more on the front foot, more in those pockets. We tried to get the ball in wide areas and create chances.”
As he reflected on the 2-2 draw with Hearts which maintained Montgomery’s unbeaten start, Boyle admitted he had enjoyed working under the former Central Coast Mariners head coach and was excited about the future.
“I feel like, since the manager came in, we’ve had that spark,” he said. “You could say that a couple of months ago we would have lost that game. But we all stick together. We’re definitely one unit.
“We’re quite expansive, which we really enjoy. We create a lot of chances. But defending is just as important as attacking in our game plan so we try to get as narrow as we can and avoid giving up chances.
“There is a lot of work, a lot of build-up, a lot of tactics to take in. There’s a lot of work out on the pitch every day, a lot of work watching videos, a lot of information to process. My brain doesn’t keep up with it as you can imagine! But it seems to be working.”
Boyle was unsurprised to see his Hibs team mate Elie Youan net a double against Hearts and is relishing linking up with the Frenchman in Montgomery’s attack-orientated system again later this month.
“He’s brilliant,” he said. “He’s got that pace, which means we can keep up with each other. He’s assisted me a lot, which is fantastic. Normally when the ball goes over the top there’s only me running in behind. But I know that, as soon as he’s in behind, I can get on my bike and try to get in the box and score goals.
“He’s a real talent and a threat. I think he knows himself that. If he can be consistent in his game, he’ll be a top, top player. He’s already scored some big goals this season, absolutely, he’s stepped up on the big occasions. If we can get more goals and assists out of him, we’ll have a top quality player on our hands.”
