So hard to STOMACH
McTominay’s dodgy tummy meant a swift exit from Kazakhstan catastrophe but he is keen to make amends
NAUSEOUS in Nursultan. Scott McTominay admits he has never felt as sick on the back of a football result — and not just on account of the stomach bug that forced his messy departure from the playing field in Kazakhstan’s newly-named capital city on Thursday night. The 22-year-old unwittingly found himself at the centre of rancour at the end of the 3-0 defeat as his dash for the toilet precipitated a touchline confrontation between angry captain Callum McGregor and coach James McFadden.
A contrite McTominay apologised to McGregor for appearing to desert the fray but even back in the sanctuary of the team hotel he could not shake the ill feeling that set in as a train wreck of a performance unfolded in the Astana Arena.
Given that Kazakhstan’s three goals had been scored by the time he appeared as a sub for John McGinn with 20 minutes remaining, McTominay’s culpability was limited.
Yet somehow that did not make it any easier to take.
‘That’s the first time I’ve ended up back in my room just looking at the ceiling thinking: “That was not good”,’ he sighed.
‘It’s not a feeling that I want to experience again. And it hurt. It did, it really did hurt.’
McTominay actually met up with Alex McLeish’s squad on a career high, his role in Manchester United’s dramatic Champions League comeback in Paris earlier this month cementing his status as a key player in the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer-inspired resurgence at Old Trafford.
His accomplished central-midfield showing helped United overturn a two-goal deficit against PSG yet, just a fortnight on, he found himself party to the worst result in the history of the Scottish national team.
In further defence of McTominay it’s worth pointing out he was actually on the premises to play his part for a squad ripped to shreds by various call-offs, no-shows and orders from club managers terrified of seeing their employees step onto an artificial surface.
Given the way he performed at the very highest level of club football in France, there’s a compelling argument to be made that he should have started ahead of, say, McGinn who, while in good form for Aston Villa, has been operating at a demonstrably lower level.
Whatever McLeish’s rationale, McTominay is happy to make it clear that his dodgy tummy was not the reason he was left out of the starting XI.
‘The selection was nothing to do with the stomach bug,’ he insisted. ‘The manager and all his staff knew I was fit and ready to go.
‘It was just a small stomach bug and I was absolutely fine when we travelled.
‘I’ve been training fine and doing all the gym work as normal. It was just one of those 24-hour things that caught up with me. Out on the pitch I was absolutely fine. I wasn’t holding back so that’s a positive for the weekend.’
With Bournemouth and Cardiff doing Scotland the almighty favour of decreeing Ryan Fraser and Callum Paterson available for this afternoon’s game in San Marino and Liverpool’s Andy Robertson also safely checked into the squad’s base in Rimini, McLeish is certain to make wholesale changes.
McTominay would love to earn his seventh cap as a starting player.
‘Of course, that’s the aim,’ he continued. ‘I want to help the boys.
‘Watching them suffering in Kazakhstan wasn’t nice. Neither was it good to go out and suffer myself for the last 20 minutes.
‘It’s not nice for anybody, for the fans especially, and we want to put that right.
‘I don’t think we underestimated Kazakhstan. We knew exactly what their system was, what they were all about.
‘They were a good side on the night, they did so well. They were aggressive, picking up on second balls and unfortunately it was their night and not ours.
‘Look, we have done so well in the Nations League and it’s not the time to write us off in any aspect.
‘It’s important that we all stick together as a group and one really bad result can’t define us.’
And yet the sheer gravity of losing to a team ranked 117th in the world, 77 places lower than Scotland, is surely destined to be the defining moment from this, McLeish’s second reign.
McTominay expresses nothing but loyalty to the man who made a personal pilgrimage to persuade the Lancaster-born player that he should declare for Scotland in early 2018.
There may be a loud clamour for McLeish to be removed from his position but McTominay won’t be joining in.
‘Every player in the dressing room and every member of staff is behind the manager,’ he added. ‘I owe the manager a lot
It’s not a feeling I want to experience again. And it hurt. It did, it really did hurt
— he is the one who came in and gave me the chance to play for Scotland.
‘I owe him a tremendous amount of credit, so of course I am behind him.
‘It’s so early to be questioning something of that significance. I suppose that’s football and that’s the kind of criticism you get.
‘We have to accept that — the manager, players and staff are all in the same boat and we have to take it as a group.
‘It was such a disappointing night and everybody knows we were nowhere near good enough.
‘The manager will take more criticism than others but I think everybody has to take a bite out of that cherry.’
With a promising club career in front of him and team-mates like Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba seemingly destined to forever breeze into major international tournaments with their respective nations, might it only be natural for McTominay to harbour some regrets about his choice of country.
‘That has never, ever entered my thought process,’ he retorts. ‘I just want to do well for Scotland and play as much football as I can.
‘The main goal is to get to a major tournament and I feel that we are more than capable of doing that. ‘That will show in the coming months.’ And so to the charming, if misplaced, optimism of youth.
Part of the team that claimed a play-off place through Nations League victories over Albania and Israel last November, McTominay maintains that the front door may yet offer an alternative route towards the travelling circus that will be 2020 European Championship finals.
Even before Thursday’s debacle, this group looked fiendishly difficult to navigate through the presence of World Cup semi-finalists Belgium and 2018’s impressive hosts Russia.
‘All the lads, when they look to club level, they will have had some type of comeback or special night that they can draw on,’ added McTominay.
‘Obviously Paris is the one for me a couple of weeks ago.
‘I’ve had a few bad losses at club level too and it’s all about how you react.
‘It’s about being disappointed on the night, reflecting on it and then the next day it’s forgotten about.
‘It’s not like everybody came down with sour faces the next morning. We’re looking forward to the next match. That’s important — if you dwell on things it keeps going and eventually you kill yourself because you can’t get over a loss that you should have got over on the night.
‘When you look round the individuals in our team — Stuart Armstrong, Oliver Burke, Callum McGregor and James Forrest — they are top players and we can go on to do really good things.
‘It’s just about knitting together as a group now and really going forward and pushing until we get some better results.
‘If we lost that game 2-1 having put in a good performance, people would be saying what a good group of players we have. I know that wasn’t the manner we lost in but we have played one game. It’s not like we have played four, five, six and we are starting to struggle.
‘We’ve made our mistakes and we have time to put them right. Hopefully the lads will do that.’
McTominay promises that Scotland will come out fired up in tiny San Marino’s Serravalle Stadium, determined to put on a performance that will offer some succour after Thursday’s misery.
‘Everything you do as a player is for the fans and hopefully to provide entertainment for them,’ he said. ‘We want to put a smile on their faces. It was horrible for the lads to see the fans like that on Thursday.
‘It’s never a nice feeling but the fans are so loyal and they will always stick behind the boys. We need to stick together as a country and as a team.
‘I feel like every game you play for your country you are going to come out fired up. That’s me especially. I want to do so well for Scotland.
‘Every single match and every single minute you’ve got to show you are ready and why you are worthy of wearing the shirt.’