You don’t have to tell Grant Hanley that he has his critics. Given his physical stature, mind, it would frankly be a brave man who would do so. The big defender is though, he says, the harshest critic of them all.
Hanley is 33 now, and whatever your opinion of him, he is as honest as the day is long. And despite some heavy flak that has come his way over his 61 caps, he has given commendable service to his country over the course of his long international career.
He has been written off countless times over that period, but has nevertheless been trusted by a series of national team managers.
Even now, at this advanced stage of his career and finding first team football hard to come by behind the likes of former Rangers flop Ben Davies in the Birmingham City centre back pecking order, Steve Clarke has consistently leaned upon Hanley and his experience.
The second leg at Hampden - for just about everybody in dark blue, in fairness - was a different story altogether. Hanley was part of a defence that was ripped asunder by the Greeks on the counter, and who looked leaden footed against the nimble artistry of the likes of wonderkid Konstantinos Karetsas.
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Hanley is used to being written off, though. And he has a message for anyone who may again be arguing that it is time for him to be put out to pasture – he will be back for more when the World Cup qualifiers kick off, and he is determined to make amends for that hellish night at the hands of the Hellenes.
“Absolutely, playing with my country is a privilege and I'll do everything to do that for as long as I can,” Hanley said.
“Everybody in the squad, that's your dream when you're a wee boy and it still is.
“I’m obviously super grateful to the trust [Steve Clarke]'s shown in me really. It would have been easy for me to not even be in the squad or certainly not be a starting player and get all those minutes in September, October, November as well, so I'm really grateful to the manager for that.
“When I look at myself, I'm always very honest and I'm no daft. I’m maybe a wee bit over critical at times. But I know what I can offer and I'm always looking to do better as well.”
Hanley wasn’t the only one to feel the wrath of the Tartan Army in the latter stages of that dismal defeat on Sunday evening, but he isn’t about to take the easy option and remind the fans just how far Scotland have come in recent years.
“No, I think fans are always entitled to their opinion and that's the way football is,” he said.
“I’m sure we feel the same, we want to do better, we want to perform better. We want to get better results, certainly than we did tonight.
“So, we understand all that and I think you learn as you go on that you can only control what you can control and at the minute for us that's obviously reacting to where we went wrong.
“Again, fans are entitled to that and as players we'll focus on ourselves and hope to do better.”
“I don't think we'll go home and label it and put a number on it where it ranks on the disappointing list,” he said.
“Over the last few years, certainly when I've been involved here, there's been some real good moments but also some real bad moments as well. We'll have setbacks, I think one thing the squad's always shown is the character and the belief to bounce back.
“So, I'm sure we'll pick the bones of this and learn our lessons and react to it and I'm sure we'll be back.
“Of course [we are better than what we showed against Greece], of course we are. We showed that on Thursday, especially the first half.
“We showed that, and we had the determination to get a result. For whatever reason, [Sunday] night wasn't our night. We didn't perform anywhere near where we wanted to, defensively or with the ball we didn't get enough chances.
“So, a big disappointment. Still raw, obviously. For me to come and talk to you and debrief it, it's tough to put my finger on it. I’m cautious in what I'm saying, to be honest with you. But what I can say is we'll learn from it and we'll improve and we'll be back.
“As it always is with this squad, nobody suffers fools and everybody's honest with each other.
“So, I'm sure everybody will have a good look in the mirror, look where we could have done better and look where we went wrong. Draw on that experience from the past, where we have had setbacks, and we've bounced back from it.
“Football's got a funny way of doing that to you. It doesn't take long to slap you in the face. It's certainly not been the first time in my career and I'm sure the boys will tell you the same.
“We've had a good result on Thursday night and then been slapped in the face a couple of days later.
“So it's about how we react to that now, how we learn our lessons and move on.”
