Striker’s milestone marked by United

Shankland’s name goes up on the board after his first goal for national team

Dundee United have wasted little time in adding Lawrence Shankland to their international honours board that hangs inside Tannadice.

Shankland’s typically opportunist strike for Scotland against San Marino at Hampden in the Euro 2020 qualifier on Sunday was the first by a United man in a competitive fixture involving the Scots since Billy Dodds found the net against Bosnia and Herzegovina 20 years ago.

TV pundit Steven Thompson did score as a United player in a 4-0 win over a Hong Kong XI select in 2002 but that match wasn’t given full status by Fifa.

Also, Shankland’s debut appearance against Russia in Moscow last Thursday made him the Tangerines’ 17th player to play for Scotland since Dave Narey pulled on the dark blue jersey in April 1977 as a sub against Sweden.

He became the first current United player to represent the Scots since now captain Andy Robertson did so in 2014, but still has a bit to go to overtake Dodds as the club’s top scorer for the national team, with the former Rangers, Aberdeen, Dundee and St Johnstone man bagging four for his country while at Tannadice.

The free-scoring frontman takes over from Slovakian international Pavol Safranko as the last name to be etched on the board.

Shankland, meanwhile, described his first international goal as a “bonus”.

He said: “I was delighted to get my home debut.

“It was obviously a bonus to get a goal as well but more importantly we got the result that we wanted.

“To get a start for your country is obviously great and getting a goal as well, I was just delighted. It’s my job.

“I will get into positions to get goals and thankfully that one has come off the bar and landed right at my feet, so I’ll probably not get an easier one, but I will take it all day.”

Scotland still have two Group I fixtures to play before they can switch their focus to March’s Nations League play-offs. Despite being unable to finish in the top two, Shankland wants Scotland to end their qualifying campaign on a high to breed positivity in the camp before the play-offs.

He added: “The main objective of Sunday night was to get the win because we want to finish as high up in this group as we can.

“It is all about building momentum towards the play-off games in March.”

Shankland will now turn his attention to club football this weekend, with Championship leaders United heading down to Dumfries to play Queen of the South on Saturday.

“It was obviously a bonus to get a goal but more importantly we got the result we wanted