Scottish Daily Mail

Porteous is inspired by McKenna’s rise to top

- By MARK WALKER

HIBERNIAN defender Ryan Porteous has watched Scott McKenna become a full Scotland internatio­nal less than two years after struggling to get a game for Ayr United. And he’s convinced his former Scotland Under-21s team-mate, now a £10million-rated centrehalf for Aberdeen, is the ideal example to follow if he wants to make a similar breakthrou­gh. ‘Scott has shown there’s a massive chance there,’ said 19-year-old Porteous. ‘A couple of years ago, he couldn’t get a game at Ayr and now he’s right up there as one of the country’s best defenders. I look up to players like him and Jack Hendry and there’s no reason why there can’t be a chance for myself and someone like David Bates, too. ‘The physical side of the game is definitely one of my strong points. It’s about experience, playing games, knowing when to tackle and when to pull out. It’s something I’ve learned and I’ve done a lot of work on it. It’s all about the timing. For me, a 50-50 challenge is like a goal-scoring opportunit­y. For defenders you don’t get the chance to score goals as much, so it’s always been that way for me.’ Although the Euro qualificat­ion dream ended for Scot Gemmill’s Under-21s with last Friday’s defeat to Ukraine in Kiev, Porteous can’t wait to test himself in tonight’s final game at Tynecastle against star-studded group winners England. ‘It doesn’t matter what the competitio­n is or if it’s a friendly ... if it’s against England we’ll do everything we can to win it,’ said Porteous. ‘It won’t be a friendly match. It will be a heated game, it’s definitely not a dead rubber. ‘They have the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Tammy Abraham. If you look too much into who you’re playing, it can sometimes distract you from your own game plan. But if we focus on ourselves, then hopefully it takes us to the win.’ That would be quite a feat against Aidy Boothroyd’s side who are unbeaten in 34 qualificat­ion games. But Gemmill, whose team have lost three times to the Auld Enemy in the last 16 months, said: ‘Our players should be full of confidence because of the results they’ve achieved against France, Brazil and Holland. So there’s a real opportunit­y to go and do it in a huge game.’

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