Hirst won his first caps with Scotland last week and he credits Liam Delap for his improvement.
“I’d say it’s never acceptance because if you sit there and accept it you’ve got no chance of ever getting in the team,” he said. “Liam’s been doing incredibly well and scoring a lot of goals.
“It’s meant I’ve had to raise my level to keep pushing him and give myself the best chance of giving the gaffer a decision to make. I’m going to keep doing that right until the very end.
“No-one likes not playing and I feel like I can help the team in more ways than one, it’s about me going out there every day in training working hard and doing everything I can to get on the pitch as much as possible.”
Hirst also stated: “We’re slightly different players in the strengths we have. I’d be naive to not look at some of the things he’s doing and trying to incorporate that into my game, but ultimately I’ve still been focusing on what I’m good at.
“I know what I bring to the team and it’s about polishing those details as opposed to trying to do things that aren’t me. I know what I’m good at and I know what got me to the position I’m in where I can fight for that spot, it’s just about going out there every day and doing it clean.
“If there are little bits I can take from Liam, which there definitely has been this season, then going out and trying it on the training pitch and seeing whether that’s for me or not.”