Douglas ready to battle for his place

Barry Douglas relished his first taste of international football but the Wolves left-back knows he faces intense competition in his efforts to keep his place in the Scotland squad.

Former Dundee United player Douglas made his national team debut as a 67th minute substitute in Tuesday’s 1-0 friendly win over Hungary in Budapest, replacing another ex-Tannadice man, Liverpool’s Andy Robertson.

With Celtic’s Kieran Tierney also vying for the position, Douglas will take nothing for granted but he is up for the challenge of remaining involved.

Douglas said: “It was obviously nice to finally get on the park, play a bit of football and finally make my debut for Scotland.

“It is always an honour to play for your country, albeit it was a friendly.

“Everyone involved was a good player. It was just a different style. The expectation of every nation is to get a win so it is maybe a bit less relaxed than it is at club level.

“The game on Tuesday was pretty end-to-end even though it was a friendly. But it is something for me to adapt to and get used to.

“There are very good players in my position. I am maybe a bit unfortunate that there are two up-and-coming players who are in my position, but such is life.

“You don’t get anything easy in football. It just means whoever is playing has to be producing all the time. I just need to keep doing well for my club. If it happens, brilliant. If not, then so be it.”

Douglas has enjoyed an excellent campaign with Wolves, after joining from Turkish outfit Konyaspor in the summer, with the club leading the Championship with only eight matches left.

The 28-year-old, who also had a spell playing in Poland with Lech Poznan, is determined to finish off the job and become a Premier League player.

He added: “I have had quite a successful season – hopefully it continues. I will go back to Wolves now and try to be part of the final push for promotion with my club.

“It is still a big if. We are not there yet.

“We have got eight more cup finals and then hopefully we can achieve what we set out to do and get promoted. We will see what happens from there.”

Barry Douglas: Premier League in his sights.