Forrest stresses it’s same for club and country after brace
ALEX McLeish was visibly angered when it was suggested to him that he, not a freakish catalogue of injuries, was the reason for so many players pulling out of the Scotland double header with Albania and Israel on Friday night.
Insinuations were quickly dispelled with a 4-0 win in the Loro Borici Stadium in Shkoder on Saturday evening.
Would James Forrest, who hadn’t even got on as a substitute in against Belgium and Albania at Hampden back in September, have turned up and made himself available for selection if he wasn’t behind the head coach?
“Every time you go away with Scotland you want to impress in training,” he said.
“The same is true when you are playing with your club side. You want to play well and play for your national team.
“When you get your chance you want to take it because there are a lot of good players playing at a good level. If I can keep performing well and scoring goals hopefully I can stay in the team.
“The manager and coaching staff have been upbeat all week. Obviously there were a lot of call-offs. But we couldn’t do much about it. The manager knows that, even with all the players who pulled out, we still have a lot of good players who are playing well for their club sides. Everyone was confident.
“I was absolutely delighted. It was a great night. To win my 25th cap, score two goals and contribute to the win was amazing. Hopefully we can take that on to Tuesday. When you are playing with confidence things come off. But I just want to contribute to the team.
“I have just tried not to think about it [not scoring for Scotland]. You always hope you get chances. I have had chances in games before. I am just glad I got on the scoresheet. I just want to win as many caps for Scotland as possible and be as successful as I can.”
Forrest added: “It was a great feeling. I have played a few times for Scotland before and I haven’t scored. I was pleased that my goals helped us win. You know you are playing with good players and you will get chances. Now I just want to get as many as I can.
“Even at the start of the game I thought we could score. We started really well and had chances even when they had 11 men. When a team goes down to 10 men sometimes they can sit back and make it hard for you. But we played in a very attacking way. We scored four and could have had more.”