Tommie Hoban previews Sunday’s match with Livingston and looks back on his first appearance since a lengthy injury lay off. Click here to view our match preview. 

“It’s been a long time since February 2019! It was great to be back out there and playing, but I felt it after the game, I was very tired! To be honest, three months ago, I had no idea if I even was going to get back, being out for so long. The phone was quiet and you do start to wonder if you are going to get that opportunity. I still wasn’t feeling great with my fitness but Aberdeen gave me the opportunity to come up here and I can’t thank them enough for that. The physio team have got me ready and I was just delighted to get back on the pitch tonight and, more important, be in a winning team.

“I was definitely starting to think about other options post-football, other careers, I was thinking about studying. That is something all players have to face at some stage but you try to ignore it, so in some ways, the injuries and thinking about that have helped me to grow as a person. It’s been a real test, a challenge and it has prepared me a bit for that time further down the line. I’m hoping that’s a way off still because it feels very good to be back playing. Hopefully I can really kick on this time, stay injury free and have a great season with the team.

“Obviously we’ve got some players unavailable at the moment so I thought I had a chance of getting in the team but the gaffer didn’t tell me it was definite until Wednesday. From there, I got myself ready, got my head focused. I’ve played a lot of games before but that was 18 months ago, so I had to try and remember how to do it all! There were a few nerves before the game but at the same time I was really excited. It’s been so long since I played, there have been some dark times, so I just wanted to enjoy it as much as I could, play as well as I can and see the team win. It does make you appreciate it more when you’ve been out so long and I want to really make the most of it now and grab the opportunity.

“There’s nothing better as a defender than getting a clean sheet and having the team win, that’s the reason why we all play the game, that’s the feeling you want every time you go on the pitch. It was a special night.

“The last couple of weeks have been tough for the whole squad, we haven’t had many players in training, a lot of the young boys have been with us, which is a great opportunity for them, but they’ve been very challenging circumstances. I think it shows the character and the attitude of the squad that we were able to stay focused and keep our heads down. You just have to let everybody say what they want to say in the papers and ignore it. Our job is to go out there on the pitch, do our job and win games. It was hard because we haven’t played in nearly three weeks while everybody else has been playing and getting sharper, but as it went on, I thought we grew into it and I felt we did really well over the 90 minutes.

“The European game is something we are all looking forward to. I had a baptism of fire up here when we played against Burnley a couple of years ago. This opposition won’t be the same level as them but they had a great result tonight so they deserve respect. But hopefully, we can start off on a nice little journey in the Europa League.

“The gaffer said before the game that our season started properly tonight, our goal is to have nine points going into the international break and we’ve done the first part of that job tonight. We’ll enjoy it, but it’s just the start and from Friday morning, it’s back in and the focus turns to the next game and we’ll try to make it six points from six.

“Sunday will be very hard. They pose a different challenge but our squad is strong enough and we go into games confident that we can do well and get three points.”