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Exclusive:Hibs UEFA Conference League hero sets 'repay fans' target amid 'aggravating' Rangers Ibrox blueprint claim Punters who suffered in Pristina deserve another European glory night, says O’Hora There’s a thrill to be had in stymieing supposedly superior opposition with an aggravating, frustrating and ultimately inspired backs-to-the-wall performance. But it’s not an experience Hibs will fancy repeating immediately. As central defender Warren O’Hora puts it, the ideal scenario for David Gray’s men in the searing heat of Skopje tomorrow night involves “blowing away” KF Shkendija with a swaggering show of slick football. As much as he enjoyed Sunday’s historic win over Rangers at Ibrox, another dogged and determined defensive shift might be a little bit too much of a strain on the nerves. Hibs in ‘blow them away’ message to rivals That certainly applies to many of the travelling fans who, despite suffering a serious kick in the Balkans the last time they followed Hibs to this part of the world, will be marching on North Macedonia in decent numbers for this UEFA Conference League third qualifying round contest. After what the players put them through in Pristina, just over the border in Kosovo, there’s an acceptance that those punters are owed a more enjoyable evening this time around. O’Hora, scorer of the late winner that gave Hibs the 2-1 lead they’ll carry into tomorrow’s second leg, admitted: “I’m hoping it won’t be quite as defensive on Thursday, not soaking up as much pressure as we had to against Rangers at times. Ideally, you want to go over there and blow them away! “But look, football is football; anybody who's playing the game knows which way these games can go. And sometimes when you're away from home, you need to dig in deep, sit back and soak up pressure, catch teams on the break. “I thought we did that really well at Ibrox. You can see that by the way we took the second goal, hitting on the break. “Obviously in Europe, we're still in the competition going into the second leg 2-1 up, a bit of a mixed bag. To then go to Ibrox and win the way we did … I think it’s nice to win like that sometimes. “What I mean is you’re solid, you cause the opposition to become aggravated, frustrated, get the crowd going against them. We got Rangers in some positions where we didn’t really mind them having the ball. “Granted, yes, Rafa Sallinger had a good game in goal, we had to make some big blocks in there. But to win a game like that, with a proper away performance, digging deep, that’s a relief – and a great way to get points on the board. “So, yeah, look, Thursday night, obviously, we're away from home. Very, very far away from home. “It’s going to be hot, you know, obviously a few tired bodies after putting a lot into Rangers away, and the second cycle of Thursday-Sunday in a few weeks. Which is why the gaffer made some changes. “But you can see with the squad that the boys are coming in, ready to go. So, yeah, look, hopefully Thursday night goes positive for us. “We look at where we can get better. There are definitely a few things from last week. And we'll move on and see what we can do.” Brutal conditions forecast The conditions are definitely going to be factor, with the National Arena Todor Proeski – KF Shkendija’s home for the evening – infamous for holding the heat. Despite the kick-off being scheduled for 8 pm local time, the warnings about what Hibs should expect have been fairly clear. “I think it's going to be about 36, 37 degrees over there,” said O’Hora. “Have I played in that kind of heat before? Definitely not in Ireland! And I don’t think you’re getting that in Scotland either … “Look, it's going to be in the evening, so it might be a bit cooler. Sometimes you just need to block out the heat, whatever other factors there might be. “They have to come out to us and play, because they need a goal. Our job is to go over there and show how good we can be, play the game is it should be played. “You just need to approach it in the right way, have your game plan, stick to it, trust what we believe in, which way we can play, how good we can be, and yeah, I'm sure we'll be fine.” O’Hora has been one of the most consistent players in this Hibs squad over an up-and-down year or so for Gray’s men. The fact that he was the man in the right place to bundle the ball home against Shkendija last week, scoring after central defensive partner Jason Kerr had hit the woodwork with a header, felt rather fitting. Reflecting on a wildly celebrated goal, he said: “Yeah, to be honest, I think Jase is unlucky, and I think he could have had three goals. He said to me after the game: ‘You bailed me out.’ “To be fair, I didn't know much about it, to be honest. But it’s a corner that we worked on, you know, all the movements are right, all the blocks are right, and it's exactly the area where we wanted the ball. “So it felt like we deserved a win, we think the performance level on the night was OK. There's definitely areas we could improve on that, and we spoke about that. “But it's so early in the season for us, and we've got a game every three, four days. So we need everybody to pull together. “The emotions on Thursday were brilliant, you know. But we could still know we need to be better if we want to go further.” The fact that Hibs were able to celebrate with supporters on Sunday, marking a historic achievement by winning at Ibrox for the third consecutive season, meant a lot to the players. Especially the guys who took the flak after their first competitive game of the new campaign, a miserable 2-0 loss to FC Malisheva in Pristina. “The fans have been brilliant for us,” said O’Hora. “You saw it at Ibrox; that's the perfect scenario for us, to be able to go over at the end of the game and see them cheering us and enjoying themselves and backing us all the way. Even though there were probably a few nail-biting moments against Rangers. “But to have them in Kosovo, obviously they didn't deserve the result we got over there. To repay them with a result and go through was great. To get to the play-off would be brilliant, and look, we know what we need to do. “We know they’ll be with us in North Macedonia on Thursday night. And I'm sure they'll be hoping to see even more European games.”