Hanson learning from America’s World Cup stars

KIRSTY Hanson has had an incredible season so far. She has signed a new deal to keep her at United and she has scored her first international goal for Scotland.

What the 22-year-old forward values most, though, is the learning curve she’s been on - and two teammates in particular who are helping her every day, even if they do keep her out of a regular starting spot.

“The likes of Christen (Press) and Tobin (Heath) coming in, they’re in my position, which as a young player I love to see,” she told M.E.N. Sport.

“Obviously, you always want to play with world champions, it’s amazing.

“I might not get much game time, but it’s the best thing as a young player to learn off them and to train with them, because even though I might not play as much but I’m always training with them every year and that’s what you don’t see.

“But I know as a player that I’m improving every day, knowing that I’m with them.”

The Americans’ approach to the game is something Hanson particularly admires and wants to imitate.

“I really do admire their attitude, because they are so enthusiastic,” she said. “I think that’s what I need to put into my game. They don’t dwell on if they’ve made a mistake, they go and ask for the ball again, and they’re very confident, I think that’s something I need to improve on.”

Hanson’s confidence was boosted by her brilliant goal for Scotland in their 10-0 victory against Cyprus in February - a beautiful left-footed effort that struck the back of the net with velocity.

“I always practise in training scoring those sort of goals and I do it all the time, but I just can’t seem to do it on the pitch on game days!” she said, admitting her United teammates messaged her straight away as they knew how much hitting the target like that would have meant to her.

“It’s just frustrating! Either I kick it, and it hits a player, or I kick it and it goes out wide or over the bar or the goalkeeper gets a touch to it. “When it went in, I was like, ‘Yes!’ “I can show people what I’m about now, because I can score those type of goals so I just need to try and get them every Sunday now for Man United!”

The Reds sit third in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League, one spot behind their City - but Hanson says they are focused on Champions League qualification rather than Manchester pride.

“We want to qualify for the Champions League,” she said.

“We focus on the next game and don’t really worry about other scores. We need to make sure we’re all focused on ourselves, stick to what we can do and what we want to do. Our main aim is to get the top three spot.

“There’s no point in worrying what they’re doing because we need to do what we do.

“And so we just need to focus on us and keep working hard and the results will come.”