Aaron Hickey has revealed he was told to treat his Hampden debut as if it was a reserve game — even though it was a sold-out Scottish Cup final.
The Scotland full back will be back at the national stadium this evening for the clash against Ireland after winning his fifth cap in Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over Ukraine.
The former Hearts defender turned in a superb display at right back after coming on for the injured Nathan Patterson to continue his remarkable development.
The 20-year-old joined Brentford in the summer and has not looked out of place in the Premier League following two years in Italy with Serie A side Bologna. Hickey has been taking life in the professional game in his stride ever since starring for Hearts in the 2019 Scottish Cup final defeat by Celtic — only his third senior game, aged 16.
Speaking of his debut against Aberdeen just a fortnight previously, he said: “It was an amazing feeling. I’d dreamt of becoming a football player, so I was buzzing.
“Off the pitch I was a wee bit like, ‘I’m up with the big players here’, but as soon as we went on to the pitch it just felt normal. It was just a game of football. The manager [Craig Levein] thought I did okay against Aberdeen, so he put me in for the Celtic game [a week later] at Parkhead in front of 60,000.
“That was class — I loved every minute of it. It was a sell-out at their stadium. I had a few of my pals in the Hearts end and I think my dad was in the Celtic end.”
Talking of the cup final a week later, he added: “That was a big one. It was a tight game, and we got the first goal, but they obviously went on to win the match. I thought we did so well — it was a good game for us.
“Before the final, when I went to have a look at the pitch and the stadium, the first-team coach [Liam Fox] came up to me and said, ‘Just treat it like a reserve game’.
“The 50,000 fans inside the stadium made that a wee bit difficult.”
