Adjusting to the demands of Scottish football pales into insignificance against the real challenge facing Warren O'Hora these days - becoming a father.

The Hibs centre-back and partner Hannah welcomed daughter Hadley into the world last month, a life-affirming moment, and one that's ensured the last few weeks have become a blur. A summer arrival after leaving MK Dons, O'Hora says fatherhood has given him a fresh sense of perspective, insisting he's determined to be the the best he can be, on and off the pitch.

"We've brought a little one in," said the 25-year-old. "About four weeks on Tuesday coming. Keeping me on my toes already. We had a little girl, Hadley. That's our first. Really, really happy with her.  My partner Hannah’s been amazing. She's jumped straight into motherhood like she's been always doing it - probably looking after me over the last few years!

“It's another challenge in my life. I'm lucky enough to be at an amazing football club. I have loads of people around me to help. I'm really in a lucky position.  Obviously, football is our lives. It's our job. It's something that we dreamt of, me personally, I dreamt of as a kid.

“In terms of putting life into perspective, when you have a kid yourself, it changes. Everything I do now is for my family. I want to be the best that I can for the family. In order to do that, I have to be the best I can be at work. That's what I'm starting to do."

It's been a few months of significant upheaval for O'Hora and his family. He agreed to head north to Edinburgh knowing the move would soon be made that bit more significant by the new arrival. But Hibs were fully aware too, and the Irishman says the club's support has been invaluable, as has partner Hannah's understanding that the life of a footballer can take you from one end of the country to the other in the blink of an eye.

“First and foremost, she knew what my job line was like. She knew that sometimes you need to move a long, long way from where you've been for a long time. That's just a part of my job, and she accepted that," said O'Hora.

“Like I said previously, I'm lucky to have a person that has just dropped all of her things in her life to go and move for mine. It was a bit stressful, having a baby coming in the October and you move to a different country.

“I think it's six or seven hours from where we used to live. It was stressful, but the club really helped me.  Before the contract was signed, before I came up, everything was assured that everything would be put into place for me in terms of hospitals and making sure my family and my missus were all right.

“The club has been great. They've helped me so much. Having little things like that done in the background means there's less worry in your head, so you can concentrate fully on the pitch. It might sometimes tough at, I presume, other clubs. But  I'm grateful that this club has really helped me in that respect.”

On the pitch, things haven't been so idyllic. O'Hora himself has settled well, and there's a promising partnership developing with Marvin Ekpiteta at the heart of defence. But after 10 games, Hibs are bottom of the Scottish Premiership, winning just one game so far. Dundee United are the visitors to Easter Road on Sunday afternoon, and there can really be no other acceptable outcome for David Gray's side than three points.

“We definitely heard about it! [Going bottom of the league] We need to be honest with ourselves in the moments – and we were," said O'Hora. "We all had a discussion about that; we knew it wasn't good enough. I think we’re on the way up, there's no doubt about it. We still have a lot of work to do but I think, especially in the last two games, we've had chances to go and win games and unluckily we didn't. We've picked up a couple of points in the last two games but we know there should be more, there's no denying that. 

Read more:

"Everybody in that dressing room will tell you that - but we're keeping a positive spin on it. We have another big game on Sunday that we can go and win and kick us up that table. For me, it was never going to be easy to hit the ground running in this league, it's the top division in Scotland.

“I thought it would be really tough and there's no doubt about it. I'm still trying my best and there's still a lot of us to improve on, for me personally.  It's impossible to be happy with yourself when you look at the table and see where we are. Like we said, you can't dwell on the past, you can only look at the next game.  There's still lots of things for me to improve on personally. That's why I'm lucky enough to have a really, really good gaffer and staff behind me to help me.”