McGregor says Scots are on the right path
Callum mcGREGOR believes Scotland have ‘turned a corner’ under the leadership of Steve Clarke. and the midfielder says confidence should be soaring when the Scots pitch up at a packed-out and pulsating Hampden for next spring’s Euro 2020 play-offs. Clarke’s men are guaranteed a home tie in their one-game Nations league semi-final on march 26, while tomorrow’s uEFa draw for the newly formatted qualification route could promise Scotland a second Glasgow date in the final as a reward for progression. mcGregor insists that, regardless of the opposition, the Tartan army should believe that the hard work done by alex mcleish back in November last year — when the play-off spot was secured by finishing top of their Nations league group — is about to pay off. ‘I think we’ve turned a corner in terms of intensity, the way we want to play and the way we want to press the game,’ said the Celtic star. ‘It’s about trying to bank that feeling. We will go away and, obviously, club stuff will take care of itself between now and march. ‘But, when we come back, we will all be in a better place. The manager will feel good about himself. The players will feel good. ‘We can then go about trying to fill the stadium — and make sure we get there.’ Failure to reach a major finals since the 1998 World Cup in France has left older fans scarred by the experience of repeated disappointment, while younger Scots — including many of the current squad — can’t even remember what it’s like to see the national team compete in a tournament. mcGregor was just five years and two days old when Scotland scored their most recent goal at a major finals. He can hardly be expected to remember much about Craig Burley finding the net against Norway in Bordeaux on June 16, 1998. Yet, like all who answer the international call-up, mcGregor has the importance of representing the country embedded in his DNa. ‘all the good work we did in November, it’s now come round and we have the chance to qualify,’ he continued. ‘So it has probably been a learning campaign again, with the new manager and new players and everyone trying to learn — and being under pressure at the same time. It has probably been good for us. ‘I think now we come away with a bit more experience, along with the feel-good factor and the chance to put the bad campaign right and get the country there. ‘light at the end of the tunnel? Exactly. It’s been a long time coming round. ‘But we probably could not be in a better place, confidencewise, leading into the game. ‘Everyone just feels a bit better about themselves. The confidence is there. ‘The belief just comes from winning games and the experience of coming through the difficult moments as well.’ moments didn’t get much more difficult than the four-game run of qualifiers that saw Scotland, up against Russia and Belgium home and away, concede 13 goals while scoring one in return. under the new management of Clarke, plenty were wondering if the upgrade from mcleish was going to be enough to halt the downward spiral. mcGregor said: ‘We had four tough back-to-back games in the group, which almost killed the group for us. ‘Everyone’s mentality from the outside looking in was like: “Oh no, here we go again”. But those were four difficult games. We have to try to learn from that and, when we go into march, we take that experience — plus the good week we have had here — and everyone should feel good about it. ‘We want to get the stadium full and then everyone comes with that belief we can do it. ‘Slowly but surely, we are getting there. It is a new group of players and we changed manager halfway through the campaign. Straight away, the gaffer is under pressure to turn it around. ‘I think it has been a positive end to the campaign. It is disappointing we did not qualify. But the work we did in the Nations league last November got us to a place where we can try to qualify. ‘We have to be positive going into these games and really be confident we can do it.’ mcGregor understands that some of us, particularly those who have heard successive generations of Scotland players express soaring confidence in what ‘the gaffer’ is doing and the ‘real quality’ of their team-mates, will take further convincing. Still, we’re two games from a major finals. The first time we’ve been this close since 2003. maybe it’s time to cut this group a little slack. ‘You can talk a good game but you have to show it on the pitch and you have to get results,’ admitted mcGregor. ‘Whoever we get in the play-offs, we should be full of confidence. If we play like we did against Kazakhstan, perform with that intensity and press the way we did, then we fancy ourselves against anyone.’