Hutton sets sights on Hall of Fame

Alan Hutton is setting his sights on entering the Scotland Hall of Fame now he’s back in favour at Aston Villa.

The Scotland full-back constantly feared for his international future despite winning 17 caps during a two-year period where he never played a single game for his club.

But the 29-year-old can finally stop worrying Gordon Strachan would eventually lose faith in him after Paul Lambert welcomed him back into the Aston Villa first-team.

Hutton has recently signed a three-year contract and has played every minute of every match for his club and is now desperate to reach the 50-cap mark for his country.

“I’m on 42 caps now so it’s another step closer to, hopefully, reaching that 50 mark,” said the former Rangers man. “That is what my main aim is along with qualifying of course.

“I’ve obviously managed to win a lot of Scotland caps throughout the last couple of years which has been great.

“It got to the stage that I was saying to guys at the club: ‘I keep myself fit for the Scotland games’. It did get like that.

“I was just so over the moon to be coming up here and still be playing. The manager put his faith in me to play 90 minutes in tough games.

“When I’d played in the previous games I always thought I’d be in the next squad but there were times when I wasn’t 100% sure I’d play. There were boys in the squad who were playing week-in, week-out.

“It would have been a bit unfair for me to come up and expect to play all the time so I did have it in the back of my mind I’d need to work especially hard in training to show I was ready.”

Amazingly, Hutton insists his exile hasn’t had a negative impact on his relationship with Lambert.

Finance reasons as orders from above to slash the wage bill and remove some of the bigger earners at the club were placed on the Villa boss was the reason Hutton was among a crop of players banished from the first-team.

The player accepts it wasn’t for footballing reasons and said: “It wasn’t as though anyone was lying to me I’d been informed from the start.

“In that respect, I just had to get on with it and deal with it. Throughout that time I did have several conversations with him and they were positive.

“I knew the situation at the club at that time, where they were and what they were trying to do and I had been told from the word go. But that’s all behind me now.

“At the end of the season we had a meeting and he just said at the beginning that I’d be back in for pre-season.

“I just took that as an opportunity to work hard, come back in fit and try to be involved. That was my main aim.

“From the first day I was back in for normal training and I went on pre-season to the States. I’d never hold a grudge.”

Hutton remains, however, hugely appreciative of Strachan for standing by him and wants to help Scotland’s Euro 2016 bid by defeating Poland this week.

“We are all desperate to qualify,” said Hutton. “We feel as though we’ve got a really good opportunity to do so. There are going to be tough games, such as this one over in Poland, but we are approaching the match full of confidence.”