Jamie McGrath wants to repay Hibernian fans for their far-travelled loyalty by progressing past Shkendija in their Conference League clash on Thursday.
The Leith side are on a high after a last-gasp goal from substitute Callum Wright gave Hibs a 2-1 William Hill Premiership win over Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday.
And it set up nicely the trip to North Macedonia, where they take a 2-1 lead from the first leg of their third qualifying round at Easter Road last week.
McGrath is well aware of the difficulties of travelling from Scotland, and the 29-year-old Republic of Ireland midfielder told BBC Scotland: “We bumped into a few fans in the airport as well, and I know how difficult it is to get here.
“I was looking up a place for my family and stuff, so it’s a very difficult place to get here, and we want to have more trips like this, and we want to reward those fans coming over here because I had a quick look on Skyscanner, and I know how difficult it is.
“So we don’t want this to be the end of the journey. We want it to be, kind of, only the start of it, and obviously, no Hibs team has got European group stage football yet.
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"So that’s obviously a burning ambition.”
Meanwhile David Gray insists the sort of belief shown in Govan at the weekend is key to progression. The Hibees boss said: “If you don’t believe in yourself or you don’t believe as a group you’re capable of coming to places like Ibrox, then you’re wasting your time in the first place.
“So it’s certainly something we’ve tried to instil right from the start. Think back to even last season winning at Celtic Park as well, hadn’t been done for 20-odd years.
“We know there are big performances in there. The players can take all the confidence from the result on Sunday and winning in Europe. We won in Europe on Thursday night. We won on the Thursday before it.
“It’s going to take a massive performance again this Thursday, but this is what you want to be involved in as players. Results like that, especially rotating the squad a little bit as well, the togetherness that comes with that as well, the squad’s certainly going in the right direction.
“But it’s only three points at the end of the day. You need to make sure you keep your feet on the ground and keep pushing forward because there’s still improvement to come in all that.”
