Turnbull had hoped he’d break into squad for Scotland

CELTIC midfielder David Turnbull isn’t a betting man – “Cheltenham’s not my game” – but there’s every chance he would have backed himself to make it into Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad this week. He wouldn’t have been the only one.

The omission of the 21-yearold this week for the World Cup qualifiers against Austria, Israel and the Faroe Islands raised a few eyebrows given that Turnbull has been the only real positive to emerge from Celtic this term. And the player himself

conceded that he was disappointed not to have earned a call up on the back of a sustained period where he has established himself at first-team level with the Parkhead side.

“Maybe a wee bit, yeah,” he said when asked about not making Clarke’s squad. “I wasn’t expecting to be first pick or whatever – but I had my eye on the squad. These things happen, you just need to work around it and keep doing what I’m doing, working hard.

“The game at the weekend and the remaining games of the season give me a really good platform to show what I can do. I’m just trying to give myself the best opportunity I can.

“Steve didn’t speak to me but I got called by someone who works with the national team, who said Steve wanted to pass on a message. I wouldn’t like to say what the message was. It was good to get a message, at least.

“[Scotland] is a big motivation. I just want to go out and play as well as I can and if that is good enough, then I hope it is. But it comes down to Steve Clarke, the manager, it is his decision and I need to respect that. I just need to keep working hard.”

In what has been a dispiriting season for Celtic, Turnbull’s emergence in the middle of the park has been something of a focal point. The former Motherwell midfielder has contributed seven goals this term for the Parkhead side with many observers believing that any restructure this summer should be fashioned around him.

Putting in a strong performance this afternoon may count for little in terms of the league but there are rewards to be gained in the eyes of Clarke

as well as in the restoration of pride among the Celtic squad who have appeared shellshocked at times this season.

“I wouldn’t say there was huge pressure on us,” said Turnbull.

“We know we can perform. It’s just that we haven’t reached the right levels in games this season.

“We’ll be looking to lay down a marker for next season. We go into every game with the same mindset, trying to win every game. We obviously haven’t done it as often as we should have this season.

“But starting Sunday we aim to put down a marker and then, hopefully, take our form from the last few games this season into the new campaign. We know what those levels are, we know how important it is to get back to them week in, week out.”

There is an argument that psychologically a win would be to Celtic’s benefit, regardless of the fact the league is long gone. Having lost their last three games to Steven Gerrard’s side there is a point, perhaps, to be proven to the players themselves. And while the game at

Ibrox at the turn of the year felt definitive in terms of the destination of the title, Turnbull will look to draw on that in terms of the way that Celtic took the game to Rangers until Nir Bitton’s second-half dismissal.

“The last game we played against them we played well in the first-half,” he said. “We came together, we pressed the ball well and we created a lot of chances but we couldn’t take them. Hopefully we can put that right this afternoon. We pressed them well and that is how we want to play them at the weekend.”