Martin Boyle insists Hibs aren’t hanging about in their quest to reach the Europa Conference League group stages.
Jack Ross’ side take on Andorran minnows FC Santa Coloma at Easter Road tomorrow night in their second qualifying round first leg.
Hibs are strong favourites to get the job done and progress to the next round where either Rijeka or Gzira United lie in wait.
Boyle makes no bones about the fact he and his teammates have their sights firmly set on guaranteed European football until Christmas and there’s no point being bashful and pretending otherwise.
“We’re not here to hang about,” he said. “We want to qualify for the group stages and I’m sure every team has ambitions of that.
“We had a long, hard season last year striving towards that goal to get into European competitions and we’ll take it game by game, opponent by opponent.”
4,700 fans will be in the stadium tomorrow night - Hibs’ biggest crowd since fans were locked out in March 2020.
And while Santa Coloma might nt get the juices flowing like Borndby or Asteras Tripoli did in recent years. Boyle is hopeful of recreating the scenes enjoyed in Copenhagen and Athens as Hibs hopefully progress to tougher tests.
He said: “The Brondby game away was great; Dave scoring that bicycle kick and the fans going mental in the background was a bit bizarre. Seeing all the videos was fantastic.
“Obviously we went out that night but it was still nice to see them and they looked like they enjoyed themselves anyway!
“Going away to Greece and beating Asteras Tripoli was great as well. John McGinn scored that night and it was tough, but those are the games you want to be playing in. It’s brilliant.”
Santa Coloma arrive in Edinburgh as virtual unknowns but the usual preparatory work has taken place to try and ensure Hibs aren’t caught on the hop.
Boyle added: “I don’t know as much about them but I’m sure when the manager goes through their team with the analysts, we’ll know their strengths and weaknesses.
“But that’s pretty much all we know on that front! They’ll be a bit of a surprise package for us but if we play like we have been doing during pre-season then I;m sure we’ll give a good account of ourselves.”
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