Villa star serves up a treble in six-goal romp

McGinn Findlay Shankland Armstrong

JOHN McGINN was the hattrick hero as Scotland reigned in the Hampden Park rain yesterday.

It was a career-first treble for the Aston Villa midfielder, the first Scotland player to score a hat-trick in the same half since Lawrie Reilly against USA in 1952.

“I’m buzzing but the main thing was to get back to winning ways and put on a good performance,” he said. “It was needed because as a country we’re hurting. We’re hurting in the same way the supporters are. The coaching staff are all desperate to make this country successful, so we’ll be doing all we can when we pick up poor results like the other night.

“I know it doesn’t make everything sweet again, but it makes it a lot more positive.”

Scotland were beaten 4-0 in Russia on Thursday and, though they can still make the finals via the Nations League play-offs, the top two places in Group I have been secured by Belgium, who won 2-0 in Kazakhstan yesterday, and Russia, 5-0 winners in Cyprus.

After McGinn’s treble, second-half strikes from Lawrence Shankland, Stuart Findlay and Stuart Armstrong completed this easy win. Manager Steve Clarke said: “It was a good performance. It’s not often a Scottish team will run up six goals.” This was Scotland’s biggest win since October 2015, when they beat Gibraltar 6-0. McGinn opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a deft touch on Ryan Christie’s shot and made it REFEREE: Jerome Brisard Belgium Russia Cyprus Scotland Kazakhstan San Marino

P W 8 8 8 7 8 3 8 3 8 2 8 0

D 0 0 1 0 1 0

L F A Pts 0 30 1 24 1 27 4 21 4 13 12 10 5 11 17 9 5 9 13 7 8 0 43 0 2-0 from close range 15 minutes later. In first-half stoppage time Findlay headed Christie’s delivery towards goal and McGinn turned and finished inside the six-yard box.

Conditions deteriorated in the second half with simple passes getting stuck in surface water.

Shankland rolled the ball home from 12 yards for 4-0 in the 65th minute, and Findlay headed home Christie’s corner from close range two minutes later before Armstrong benefited from a misunderstanding in the 87th minute.

San Marino keeper Aldo Simoncini picked the ball up outside his box, mistakenly thinking the whistle had gone for a foul, and Scotland found themselves with a free-kick 25 yards out. It was the chance for sub Armstrong to curl a beauty into the top corner.

SCOTLAND: SAN MARINO: