Friendliesmaybe matchesmadein heavenforsome

THIS Scotland jaunt across the Atlantic at the end of the month is about as welcome as Meghan Markle’s auld man at the Royal Wedding.

But don’t think the games against Peru and Mexico won’t mean as much to some players as an invitation with a Windsor watermark to Mr M.

The way some folk have whinged you’d think Alex McLeish was going to have to bring back conscription to raise a squad for this one.

But maybe we’ve been a bit too quick to scoff at this trip and it’s easy to see why. The timing is rotten, half the squad don’t fancy it and even the manager must view it with little enthusiasm.

The travelling party have not even got their backsides on the plane and it’s already being seen as one of Stewart Regan’s duff legacies, left behind at Hampden like a brown envelope containing a bill for the blocked drains.

Get over, get through it, get back, and we’ll speak no more about it.

But hang on a second. While the rest of us reckon this trip is ashtray on a motorbike levels of uselessness, there will be a few who think differently.

Do you reckon Lewis Stevenson will see it as pointless when he is handed a Scotland trackie for the first time in adult sizes?

Will Lewis Morgan be sitting with his face tripping him when he has the chance to grab a cap?

Does McLeish shrug his shoulders when he takes a look at John Souttar and sees the tools to shape a top-class centre half?

That’s the thing about this summer jolly.

It might look like a lemon but it’s up to those on board to make a jug of lemonade.

There’s nothing to lose really. These games are not about us. We’re just going over there to pocket a few quid.

Peru and Mexico have drafted us in as movable cones to run around to get their legs going for the real deal in Russia.

No one really cares what Scotland do, as long as we turn up. There’s no point getting worked up about it.

The challenge is to make it worthwhile and if even one question reveals an answer then it could be worthwhile.

Morgan might land with a swagger that takes him in to the senior side in the autumn.

Kenny McLean could keep up his sensational form from the second half of the season and nail down a regular role.

Big Souttar might stroll it in the Azteca, just like Paul McStay, Pat Nevin and Steve Clarke when the kids famously beat Mexico in their own swanky gaff at the World Youth Cup 35 years ago.

This will be a diddy friendly game but it can still be the making of a few.

We’ve already dug out Scott McKenna in another one of these so-called meaningless games against Costa Rica.

Back in 2006, Walter Smith managed to twist a few arms to get them across the globe to Japan for the Kirin Cup.

Winning the wee pot has become a bit of a gag in Scottish football but within a few months we’d beaten France.

No one is saying Peru and Mexico will be a new dawn but it will still be more interesting than the Royal Wedding. OUR TOP WRITERS GIVE THEIR FEARLESS VERDICTS EVERY DAY IN RECORD SPORT