Sbragia so glad Lewis is fighting fit for Scotland
RICKY Sbragia has praised Lewis Macleod’s strength of character after recalling the former Rangers midfielder to the Scotland under-21 squad for the first time in two years.
The 22-year-old, who was called up to the full squad in November 2014, has suffered a nightmare 18 months since leaving Ibrox for Brentford in January 2015, with injuries restricting him to just a solitary appearance for his club before the current campaign.
However, Macleod has started all four Champion- ship outings this season and Sbragia is thrilled he has made the cut for the Euro qualifiers against Macedonia and Ukraine.
“I’ve been keeping in touch with him once a month and he’s had low times,” he said.
“But he’s back now and playing extremely well. He had a good pre-season too and I think 18 months ago he could have been knocking on the door of the A squad.
“He’s done extremely well to come through some harsh times. I just hope he comes through this weekend.”
PARTICK Thistle’s young defender Liam Lindsay has revealed his disappointment after again failing to win a place in the Scotland under-21 squad.
Ricky Sbragia announced his 21-man squad for the forthcoming matches against FYR Macedonia and Ukraine yesterday.
Despite going into his second season as a regular at the heart of the Thistle defence at Premiership level though, Lindsay was again overlooked by his country.
The 20-year-old is mature enough to maintain a sense of perspective on being continually snubbed for a cap call, insisting that continuing his improvement for his club is his main aim.
He admits, though, that there is a part of him that is puzzled by his continued omission from the international set-up.
“Of course it’s disappointing,” Lindsay said. “But all I can do is keep playing well for Thistle and keep trying to do my best.
“Obviously there’s a wee bit you that wonders why you aren’t being picked, but that’s the manager’s choice, he’s made it and there’s not much I can do about it really. I just try to stay positive.
“I’m sure my manager at Thistle will want me to keep plugging away and that’s what I’ll be doing.
“Of course, you always want to play for your national team – I’ve never done it – so it would be a great achievement and I would love to be a part of it.”
Lindsay has generally been excellent for Thistle since his introduction to the first-team last on a regular basis last season.
He recognises though that he will have to cut down on a propensity for the odd mistake that can creep into his play, such as the one on Saturday that gifted Aberdeen a crucial second goal.
Under pressure from Graeme Shinnie, the centre-back presented the ball to Miles Storey who had a clean run through on goal.
GIVEN the position he plays, he knows that his mistakes will be brutally exposed by the concession of goals more often than not, strengthening his resolve to cut them out of his game.
“It was gutting to have made a mistake, but I just have to keep my head up and not let it get me too down,” he said.
“I’m still young, so obviously I’m going to make mistakes, but it’s all about learning from it and trying to make as few as possible.
“I wasn’t expecting the pass, and Sean Welsh said afterwards that he was meaning to give it to the keeper, so it caught me a bit flat-footed. I’ve just seen the Aberdeen player coming towards me, so I’ve tried to cut back inside and he’s actually caught my knee.
“I’ve presumed the referee has seen that he has caught my knee and sort of stopped, which was stupid on my part and it cost us a goal.
“It was a bit embarrassing for me. You just want the ground to swallow you up when something like that happens, but you need to keep your head up because you never know what could happen.
“You saw at the end that we could have pulled it back to twoeach, but it never happened.
“The boys were brilliant with me. They obviously know that it is hard for a young kid to come in and that I might make a mistake or two, so they’ve been great.
“If you make a mistake you always want to bounce back with a good performance, and that’s what I’m concentrating on doing this Saturday against Hearts.” SAYSFIRHILL STARLETLIAM