Campbell fires Under-21s to vital win

Allan Campbell admits his winning strike in Vilnius was not the clean est but hopes it will ensure Scotland Under-21s are sitting pretty at the end of their qualifying bid.

The Motherwell mid fielder fired the only goal against Lithuania to keep S cot Gemmill’s team on course for next summer’ s European Championships in Hungary and Slovenia.

The Scots now sit four points behind the Czech Republic with four games to play – one more than the Group 4 leaders – after Campbell’s mishit strike found the net.

The scuffed shot caught Lithuanian keeper Titas Krapikas by surprise and now Campbellhop es his side can find their way back into qualifying contention.

Having triumphed on their return from an 10 -month layoff caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Scotland can cut the lead at the top of their section even further when they host the Czechs at Tynecastle next month.

Campbell told the Scotland Twitter account: “It was a bit of a scuff to be fair. I tried to cut across the ball and thankfully it’s gone in.

“Listen, you’ll take any goal. I’m proud to score for my country and I’m proud to get the win.

“It’s been a good week. Obviously the boys haven’ t been together for a good number of months. It was a bit strange at first with all the Covid stuff.

“But everyone got used to it, we prepared well and now we’ve got a good performance which is the main thing. We’ve got the points so we’re happy.

“If you look at the games so far we’ve showed a lot of team spirit, some good football.

“We’re playing well so we’ll look forward to the tasks ahead and hopefully keep winning,” added Campbell.