McKENNA’S DREAM SEASON:
Captaining Scots against Mexicans was icing on the cake in McKenna’s stunning season with club and country
SCOTT McKENNA began the season playing for Aberdeen’s Under20 team against St Johnstone before 155 fans in the Irn-Bru Challenge Cup at Brechin.
And he finished it captaining Scotland before 72,000 Mexicans in the iconic arena where Pele and Diego Maradona savoured their finest moments.
The 21-year-old completed the journey from Glebe Park to the Azteca Stadium in a 1-0 defeat to Mexico, reflecting afterwards on a meteoric ten-month journey.
‘I played against St Johnstone in the Challenge Cup for the 20s,’ said McKenna. ‘I played three or four more games after that and then the Scotland Under-21 match against Holland changed everything for me.
‘It has been a crazy season, I don’t think it will sink in for another couple of weeks when I’m away on holiday and I can sit back and relax. It has been pretty full on, one thing after another, and I have enjoyed every single moment.’
A former captain of Scotland’s Under-19 and Under-21 sides, McKenna also skippered Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final.
A grim defeat to Motherwell was his ropiest game of a season encompassing giant strides and consistent performances.
A Scotland captain is normally expected to come with an established body of work.
McKenna learned he would lead out his nation at the Azteca in a team meeting on Saturday morning after just three caps.
‘When the team was put up on the board there was a “c” next to my name — I was massively surprised,’ he admitted.
‘I know it is a relatively inexperienced squad but there were boys with seven and eight caps starting and I thought they might have been given the nod ahead of me, so I was absolutely thrilled to get it.
‘The manager has shown great trust in me ever since he has come in. I have started all four games and hopefully I can go back to Aberdeen and do well and be in his thoughts for the future, too.’
His breakthrough moment was in a 2-0 win for Scotland’s Under-21s against the Netherlands in September.
‘I played quite well that game and (Aberdeen manager) Derek McInnes was at it and he trusted in me from then on in,’ said McKenna. ‘He put me in against Motherwell after a bad result and has stuck by me ever since.’
Seeing a little of his younger self in the towering Aberdeen defender, Scotland boss Alex McLeish views McKenna and Celtic’s Jack Hendry as a potential solution to Scotland’s drought of talent in central defence.
Picking both after limited first-team exposure was a bold call — one Gordon Strachan might not have made.
After an uncertain start prompted by a 13th-minute strike for Giovani dos Santos, which annoyed the new captain, the introduction of Charlie Mulgrew in a 3-5-2 formation steadied the ship in the second half.
‘It was a tough one, obviously very disappointing to have lost another goal from another cross,’ admitted McKenna. ‘That has happened far too often. That’s three goals from crosses now and that isn’t great and something we must look to cut out — because other than that we’ve kept our shape and been relatively solid and maybe we could just carry more of an attacking threat.
‘We played against a very experienced team — Callum Paterson was our most capped player on eight appearances.
‘There were a lot of young players in there and we’ve got to learn from it and understand the levels we need to reach if we’re to play at a major tournament.
‘Hopefully with the more experienced ones coming back in we’ll have a collective with the ability to do well in the next qualifying campaign.’
The Azteca experience was spectacular in the end. It looked and felt like a World Cup groupstage game, offering Scotland’s fringe team an experience money can’t buy.
‘Mexico are definitely up there and the altitude in the heat made it more difficult for us,’ said McKenna.
‘They are more used to it and it was hard to recover. After every run, you were out of breath and at the end I was struggling to move, it was like being a man down.
‘It was all about being disciplined. We weren’t always going to carry that attacking threat but we tried to keep our shape and limit them to chances outside the box and that’s why conceding a goal from a cross was very disappointing.’
For all the justified criticism of a unilateral decision by former SFA chief Stewart Regan to grab the money on offer for a 15,000-mile round trip at the end of a long domestic season, the players involved have taken something from the exercise.
In McKenna, Johnny Russell, Stephen O’Donnell and Scott Bain, McLeish has found players worth a call when the Nations League gets under way against Albania in September.
‘It has been a long way to travel but I’m thankful for it,’ said the Dons defender.
‘A number of young boys have made the step up from 21s and we would all have bitten your arm off for the chance to be here.
‘It has not been a problem. There have been long flights, but it’s something we have to do. We have all enjoyed the experience and hopefully we’ll be back for more.’