Ritchie is relishing underdog challenge
THE ACCENT is all Gosport, the attitude pure Caledonia. Matt Ritchie has settled into this Scotland squad for reasons beyond the warm welcome afforded him by his team-mates.
Happy to play the underdog role for club and country, the Bournemouth winger is making a career out of disproving people’s perceptions.
It is a trend he aims to continue in a World Cup qualifying campaign pitting Gordon Strac han’ s men against Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Malta and England. Or newly-crowned Euro 2016 champions England, to give them their presumptive title.
Ritchie, who bagged his third goal in eight appearances for Scotland against Denmark on Tuesday night, knows that the challenge to reach the 2018 World Cup Finals runs parallel with his club side’s achievements in establishing themselves as an English Premier League side.
‘It is a great opportunity,’ he said of the qualifiers. ‘ England will be favourites and we will probably be written off as underdogs — but I think that is a good position to be.
‘We believe in the camp we have enough quality to qualify and we will be trying to do that.
‘It is the same thing we have at Bournemouth. We go into the games and everybody writes us off. That gives us that extra grit to go out and do that bit better.’
Comfortably clear of the relegation zone, with a handful of handsome scalps to show from their first season in the top flight, Bournemouth would have gained much more publicity for their achievements in any other season. One without Leicester closing in on the title, for instance.
Ritchie’s emergence as a Scotland regular, a clear Strachan favourite, has been similarly low key. If you can possibly apply that description to someone who has already scored three times for his country.
The 26-year-old, who qualifies for Scotland thanks to dad Alex from Edinburgh, has only been part of the squad for a year. Yet he has been able to fit right in.
And he praised skipper Scott Brown, who won his 50th cap on Tuesday night, for being one of the main reasons he has settled in so well.
‘He is the captain and he is a top, top captain,’ said Ritchie (right). ‘ He was the first person I saw when I turned up at Mar Hall for the first squad.
‘He couldn’t make me feel more welcome. From day one he was lively and helped me settle in. He also helped me on the pitch and he is a top, top player who has done it at the highest level for so long — and I am delighted he has won his 50th cap. It shows what a great professional he has been.
‘I have enjoyed it all, being with Scotland. From the gaffer to the boys, everybody involved in the international set-up has made it easy for me to settle in.
‘I love coming away, it is brilliant. The break from the Premier League is good. It is tough every week, but I come away with Scotland and it brings a different scenery and freshens things up.
‘To be called up for your country is an honour. To come in and score goals and be involved as much as I have is fantastic. I’m thankful to the gaffer and the lads for helping me. It’s been great for confidence.
‘I was delighted to score and to see us win the game against Denmark. I think we are a little bit disappointed with the performance overall, but it is another win and a step i n the right direction. Hopefully, we can build on it.
‘We haven’t played as well as we can but we have won the game and that is the sign of a good side. We need to make the performances a little better and, if we can do that, we can go into the World Cup qualifying campaign confident.’
One away day already stands out in that fixture list, of course, with the trip to play England at Wembley in November marked with a big red ‘x’ from the moment the schedule was drawn up.
Ritchie has history at the home of English football, although it’s fair to suggest that his next visit there — by which time Roy Hodgson’s men may well be European champions, according to Strachan — is likely to be a little grander than the last.
‘I have played at Wembley — it was i n the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final a few years back with Swindon,’ he recalled. ‘I don’t really want to talk about that because it was a bad day at the office (they lost 2-0 to Chesterfield).
‘If England are the champions, then so be it. They obviously have good young players but we showed against Denmark that we also have a number of good, young players coming through as well. It will be a fantastic occasion for everyone. ‘ We’ve got good talent coming through. The manager wants them to step up to the plate and some of the boys showed against Denmark why t hey are worth picking.
‘It’s great to see a couple of teenagers playing, too, in Kieran Tierney and Oliver Burke. It shows it doesn’t matter what age you are because, if players are performing for their club, then they will get called up. It gives everyone round about it great hope.’