Leonard believes future is bright for Scottish football
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION starlet Marc Leonard insists the future of Scottish football is bright after he bowed out of the Under-21 set-up following a draw in Denmark.
The former Hearts midfielder was one of 10 players who started in Scotland Under-21’s 1-1 draw in Vejle on Friday to end the campaign who will be too old for the next qualification campaign.
Scotland secured a draw thanks to a sublime free kick from Rangers’ Stephen Kelly on the stroke of half time, which
will be enough to move them up a seeding to pot three in the next tournament.
However, in truth the campaign will be looked back as a disappointment, despite two respectable draws in the last two games in Belgium and Denmark.
They only managed to win one game out of eight – at home to Kazakhstan – and their poor home form cost the young Scots any hope of getting to the Finals.
But 20-year-old Leonard, who has been on the bench several times this season for the south coast English Premier League club, is convinced things are looking up for Scotland.
He said: “There were ten boys who started who can’t play again but there are another ten in there waiting.
“We train the way we play, everyone knows the game plan and how we’re going to set up. Each game might be different in terms of set-up, but it’s drilled into us in training.
“So I think no matter what, there are boys who will be on it especially coming in this early. They’ve had plenty of time to get used to the system and to use it.
“It’s a big stage and something every young player in Scotland should want to be a partof.
“It’s completely different from club football because a lot of games are one-off.
“Under Scot Gemmill, who’s got a winning mentality, we compete against top teams who others might write you off against.
“He’s always battering into us we can do it and we’re just
as good and we can compete.
“Scot’s been great with the whole group and I think you
could see that against Denmark.
“Maybe the game didn’t mean too much in terms of qualification but we went to put that shift in and it shows everyone is playing for him.”
Scotland had to dig deep to claim a point in Vejle with a backs-against-the-wall performance. But Leonard believes it shows the maturity of the unit.
He said: “We were unfortunate because some performances weren’t where they should have been before.
But we all dug in deep and wanted to get something from the two remaining games in Belgium and Denmark and we did.
“You expect to be under pressure when you’re playing against world-class players.
“We showed we can come up with a game plan to put that to a stop and compete with these teams.
“For me, I’ve played the majority of the games and it’s been a huge stage in my career to
push on from.