The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Young Scots now six games without goal
Under 21s: Goal drought continues as Gemmill’s side draw another blank against Estonia
SCOTLAND U21S 0 ESTONIA 0
Scotland Under-21s saw their goal drought pass the nine-hour mark as they drew 0-0 against Estonia at the Paisley 2021 Stadium last night.
Scot Gemmill was hoping to use the friendly encounter to boost his side’s confidence before kicking-off their European Championship qualifiers later this year.
But their six-game dry spell means they have now gone 552 minutes since Hibernian striker Jason Cummings last found the net against Northern Ireland almost a year ago to the day.
Gemmill will take an under-20s team to May’s Toulon Tournament but this was the last chance for his under-21s to impress before they open their bid to reach the 2019 Euro finals against Holland in September.
The Scots have been handed another tricky group after being drawn alongside the Dutch, England, Ukraine, Latvia and Andorra.
But there will be more cause for
How Scots lined up
Scotland: R Fulton, L Smith, G Taylor, J McGhee, J McCart. L Henderson (C), P McMullan, J Jones, S Mallan, O McBurnie, L Morgan. Subs – J Ruddy, J Thomson, J Harper, R Hardie, C Cadden, R Sammut, A Iacovitti, C Wighton, C Ballantyne, D Mackay, D Thomas. concern for the head coach after his new-look side followed up a run of five straight defeats with this toothless stalemate.
The St Mirren pair Stevie Mallan and Lewis Morgan were handed their first caps on home soil as they started alongside three other debutants, Celtic youngsters Jamie McCart and Paul McMullen – on loan at Inverness and Dunfermline respectfully – and Kilmarnock’s Greg Taylor.
McMullen spurned the young Scots’ first chance inside 90 seconds as he fired into the side-netting while Morgan was only denied by goalkeeper Andreas Vaikla’s block after his rapid burst saw him outpace the visitors’ defence.
From the resulting corner, Jordan McGhee headed wide while frontman Oliver McBurnie was unable to steer the ball past Vaikla at the back post after Taylor did well to pick him out at the back post.
Mallan and McBurnie then combined but the keeper was again on hand to keep out the strike from the Buddies midfielder.
Estonia’s first chance came half an hour in as Peeter Klein’s shot was deflected wide. McBurnie suffered a similar fate as he got on the end of a McMullen cut-back just before the break.
Gemmill made a raft of changes after the break and the alterations seemed to disrupt his side’s flow.
Motherwell trainee Thomas was again involved late on as he found Craig Wighton at the back-post but the Dundee striker could not provide a finish.