Hibs boss David Gray refuses to be drawn on interest in Grant Hanley
Hanley watched from the main stand at Easter Road on Thursday as the spirited Hibees suffered an agonising 2-1 extra-time defeat at the hands of Danish side Midtjylland, fuelling speculation that he is set to join Gray's squad.
Asked about the defender, Gray said: 'I think we're just always looking into the squad to see what can be done. Right now, whilst the window's open, you're always going to be getting speculation and rumours.
'But I'd rather talk about the players that are in the building tonight, purely because of what they've given me, and I think that would be the right thing to do. And then we'll look at that down the line.
'Whilst the window's open, there's always a need to be active. There's always speculation, so we always need to be moving towards making sure we finish the window stronger than when we started it. And that's what we're working towards.'
Gray was gutted his side were unable to force a penalty shootout against Midtjylland.
Following a 1-1 draw in Denmark a week previously, and a goalless 90 minutes in Edinburgh, it looked like a tense tie was destined to go to penalties after a sublime extra-time strike from Dario Osorio was cancelled out by a close-range finish from Hibs defender Rocky Bushiri.
But just moments after Midtjylland had replaced goalkeeper Jonas Lossl with Elias Olafsson in anticipation of a shootout, Junior Bramado's magnificent overhead kick sent the Danes through to the third qualifying round.
Hibs will now parachute into the third qualifying round of the Conference League to face Partizan Belgrade, with the first leg set to be in the Serbian capital next Thursday.
'Very mixed emotions,' said Gray. 'I hate losing, but I can't ask the players for any more. It took three spectacular efforts to beat us over the tie against a real top team. I'm proud of the players.'
Midtjylland head coach Thomas Thomasberg said he always planned to change his goalkeeper if the tie looked set for penalties. 'We knew if we got to penalties, Elias is the best for this, I talked to them about it before and they knew this could happen,' he said.
'I give credit to Hibs, we had to work hard in both games but I think we were the best team. We struggled in both games but we are through to the next round and that was the aim.'
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I felt like we had chances as well, but to lose a game with two goals like that is a very hard one to take. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dens Park challenge up next 'Of course, we'll definitely look at things we could have done better. I'm not saying we'll just go away from the game, we'll definitely look at things where we can improve, because that's what we've been doing through the whole start. 'Since I've come to the club, that's the way it works. After every performance, we look at what we can do better, what we did well. So we'll definitely do that, and then it'll be very quickly turning around to Dundee, I'd imagine. 'But we can't let it linger. The changing room we have, us boys won't let anybody feel sorry for themselves or anything like that. Because it's in the past now, we can't control it.' 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I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We have a lot of positives to take into Sunday. It's definitely going to be a tough game. It's the first game of the season; we want to start well. 'We have no time to let our heads hang. We'll come in, we'll recover, and we'll go through everything.' Europa Conference League new target Insisting that Hibs will definitely have learned from their efforts against Midtjylland, O'Hora named just a couple of plus points from the two legs against a team with an impressive European pedigree, the former MK Dons player saying: 'Discipline, work-rate. I think we always knew that we'd probably have to give up some possession, that they'd get into areas. 'We can play against that level, we believed. I think the second leg performance showed that we can play against opposition at this level. Unluckily we were punished by high quality goals, like I said earlier. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's positive things in the game. Obviously we won't accept losing, I don't want to put that across, it's very disheartening. But there is a lot of positives in that game, I'm sure that the gaffer and the staff will pick out. 'Away to Midtjylland, it was my debut in European football. You can only benefit from it, definitely. 'It's an experience, it's definitely a different experience. You travel to different countries, a different atmosphere, different style of play, different players. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's something that you need to adapt to quickly, and I think we did over these last two legs. But like I said, we have Sunday coming up first, and that's where our focus will be.' Hibs had chances to pull off a real shock last night. Counter-attacking opportunities where the wrong decision was made – or the ball simply wouldn't bounce in the right direction. The sort of thing that always makes a difference, the higher up the footballing ladder you go. Easter Road bedlam is 'why we play football' - Hibs ace Yet there were also positives to take from the experience. Not least the sheer bedlam generated by Rocky Bushiri's equaliser in extra time. 'Yes, that's why you play football, isn't it?' said O'Hora, forcing a smile. 'It's for moments like that. It's so nice. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Rocky scored so many important goals for us last year, and he's just scored another one for us this year. That's a credit to him. He's a real goal threat in the box. 'But you can see the reaction from the fans, singing his name. You see everybody celebrating, the whole bench celebrates. 'There's boys that didn't play, didn't start, didn't come on, whatever. But it's all forgotten about, that's how together this group has been since we've first come in. We're going to need that tenfold for the whole season. 'The backing we got against Midtjylland was amazing. The fans stood by us, it was absolutely jumping. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The atmosphere, as soon as you walked out, it was just electric. Even when they did score the first goal, the crowd didn't let us get our heads down, they stayed behind us from the very off - and we're going to need that week in, week out this season.'
