Christian Doidge aims to give Ryan Giggs a gentle elbow in the ribs on Friday night to remind the Wales manager not to forget him ahead of the Euro 2020 finals.
Doidge will line-up for Hibernian at home to Rangers in the Scottish Premiership as the newly crowned Ladbrokes Player Of The Month in Scotland following an impressive few weeks.
The Newport-born striker has struck seven goals in his last seven matches, a rate that has propelled him up to sixth place in the current scoring charts in his league and made him an increasingly talked about threat in Scottish club football.
Whether Doidge has the ability to follow new Wales folkhero Kieffer Moore and emulate the Wigan striker in making a successful transition into international football remains to be seen, but Doidge believes his move from League Two Forest Green to Hibs has equipped him to be worth considering.
Like Moore, Doidge is 27 but appears to be a player with plenty more to offer – potential that a move to Bolton Wanderers looked as if it might bring to fruition a year ago, only for the switch to prove disastrous because of the League One club’s financial problems.
After picking up his award, Doidge said: “The prospect of playing for Wales was one of the reasons for moving up here. I knew I was coming to a better league and playing against better players.
“So with the boys qualifying for the Euros, it would be a dream of mine to play for my country.
“I was one of the lads in the fanzones when they were at the last Euros and nothing would make me prouder to represent my country.”
Doidge’s scoring patch has enabled Hibs to recover from an awful run of form that saw them go 13 matches without a win in Scotland.
They may lay sixth in the table and are way off the pace set by title fighters Celtic and Rangers, but four victories in their last seven matches proves they are now heading in the right direction.
Doidge added: “Celtic and Rangers are both top sides and you can see what they’re doing in Europe with both of them qualifying for the knockout phase and that shows how good they are.
“They’ve got some fantastic players and it’s hard to play against them. We know it would be a massive scalp if you beat either of them.
“We’ve got Rangers on Friday night and we hope we can get something from that game.
“We drew with Celtic at Easter Road earlier in the season so we’ve shown that it’s a hard place for other teams to get a result at. We’re hopeful we can do something against Rangers too.
“We’re in the top six so first and foremost we want to stay there and then get as high as we can and then try to get in the mix for a Europa League slot.”
Doidge joined Bolton on loan last season, with the deal set to be made permanent in January 2019, but the move collapsed as the club could not afford the £1m fee.
He then returned to Forest Green for the rest of the season before joining Hibs for £250,000 in the summer.
