McKENNA BLOCKING OUT THE NOISE ON SCOTS’ ROAD TO REDEMPTION

HOW better to relax after a game than by speeding towards oncoming traffic on the wrong side of an Albanian highway in pitch darkness, as your ears are assailed by the sound of screeching tyres and head-thumping techno? For Scott McKenna, the journey after Saturday night’s 4-0 victory in Shkoder proved significantly more stressful than the match itself. Even then, he still ended up laughing. The Aberdeen defender might dispute his colleagues’ taste in music but he feels events of the past week — on and off the pitch — have deepened the camaraderie within Alex McLeish’s squad. It is a bond he hopes can now be strengthened further by securing a Euro 2020 play-off with victory against Israel this evening. Brushing off ten-man Albania provided the perfect warm-up. Yet McKenna revealed there was little chance of unwinding as the squad raced to meet its return flight to Glasgow. ‘We were driving up the wrong side of the road with a police escort, going round blind corners,’ he grimaced. ‘We made it back and we got home safe, so that was main thing. ‘The right lane was full of buses, so we were going down past them and there were cars coming the opposite way who had to go off the road to pass us. We got there in the end. But it wasn’t great to be honest! ‘The mood on the bus was obviously good, though. The louder ones up the back of the bus had all the bam tunes on, all the Glasgow boys. You know what they’re like. It’s not really my cup of tea, that music. We don’t get that in Forfar! ‘Did I not tell them to shut it? No, definitely not. I’d get absolutely slaughtered for that. And I am outnumbered. There are more Glasgow boys than there are Forfar boys!

‘But we have that kind of thing right through the whole camp. When it is time for training and time to play, we are always focused. But, other times, you have people up to stupid stuff. There’s probably not much I can repeat here. ‘It is good we can have that focus when we need to, but, obviously, boys can chill and relax when we are away from training.’ It helps to have others of a similar age. McKenna was the more experienced of Saturday’s two 22-year-old centre-backs as David Bates made his international debut. ‘Obviously, I’m still quite young and I’ve only got seven caps,’ said the Aberdeen man. ‘But Batesy came in beside me and didn’t look one bit out of place. I thought it was an excellent debut. ‘I think we can complement each other. The key to it is communication and helping each other out. We limited their chances and I don’t think Greegsy (Allan McGregor) really had a save to make in the game. ‘Batesy is a great guy. I spoke to him on his first day in the squad and we got on right away. There wasn’t any awkwardness or anything.’ Steven Fletcher stands at the opposite end of the experience spectrum from Bates. The Sheffield Wednesday striker made a successful Scotland comeback in Shkoder, but the pre-match training wasn’t actually the first time McKenna had shared a pitch with him. The two locked horns when the defender was a teenage Pittodrie youth prospect asked to help out with preparations for Gordon Strachan’s debut as Scotland manager in February 2013. ‘We were taken in to shadow and it was the back four working against the strikers,’ recalled McKenna. ‘I remember Mark McGhee telling us we weren’t there just to muck about or make up the numbers. We were to get stuck in to them. ‘Marcus Campanile, one of the young boys who was at Aberdeen, actually flattened Charlie Adam! ‘We got told to calm down after that. ‘I was trying to get to Stevie but I couldn’t get near him. ‘Saturday was the first time I have played alongside him. To go and show that quality after not being in the international squad for a wee while was brilliant. ‘His link-up play was superb, bringing boys in to play and helping us get up the park.’