Let’s emulate women’s team

Scott M cK en na admits Scotland need to follow their female counterparts’ lead and attract the crowds back to Hampden.

But the Aberdeen defender is confident the positivity from the club scene allied with the optimism over the appointment of Steve Clarke can help them rediscover the feelgood factor.

Scotland Women brought in a record crowd when they beat Jamaica at the national stadium last week in their final World Cup warm-up.

A big turnout for the men’s team for Saturday’ s visit of Cyprus looked unlikely after Scotland lost their opening Euro 2020 qualifier in Kazakhstan but Clarke’ s appointment as head coach has lifted the Tartan Army.

The squad was further boosted by seeing skipper Andy Robertson lift the Champions League on Saturday and others arrived at the camp fresh from club success, including the four Kilmarnock players who helped Clarke lead the Ayrshire side back into Europe.

M cK en na, whose Aberdeen team also qualified for the Europa League, said: “The women’s team got 18,500 the other day so it’s up to us now to try and get a crowd through the door and put in a good performance and bring that feelgood factor to the men’s team as well.

“It’s all very positive–the new manager, a good few boys in the squad have had great ends to the season. We’re all delighted Andy has won the Champions League, John Mcginn and Kenny Mclean have been promoted to the Premier League and all the Celtic boys have just done a treble treble.”