The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Stark tells young Hibs duo to stay home
SCOTLAND UNDER-21 boss Billy Stark told devastated duo Sam Stanton and Danny Handling to stay at home after their relegation disaster with Hibernian.
The Easter Road duo were supposed to meet up with the rest of Stark’s group yesterday morning ahead of tomorrow’s UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier with Holland.
But they will now miss the game at St Mirren Park after the Scotland manager decided t he stunned 20-year-olds would put the squad’s feelgood factor at risk.
He said: “The lads are in a state of shock. Some fans might think that players don’t care what happens but they were distraught when I spoke to them last night.
“They felt humiliated and I just felt it would be very difficult for them to come here the next day with a spring in their step and a smile on their face.
“The s quad needs positivity around it so I made the decision with the lads’ full backing that they should stay at home.
“I told them that if they thought the best thing for them would be to come here and get away from it all, then they were more than welcome.
“But they agreed with me that the state they were in, that would be difficult.”
Hibs were relegated to t he Championship after blowing a two-goal lead at Easter Road on Sunday before l osing their Premiership place to Hamilton on penalties.
But Stark insists their play-off nightmare will not haunt their young careers.
“I told them during my chat that as a good professional, you need to learn to deal with disappointment,” he said.
“I can’t imagine they will have any greater disappointment than getting r el egated with Hibs because it is a a big club.
“No one would have seen it coming three months ago. It’s a shock but they will recover and it will not stunt their development.”
The Scots sit fourth in the f ive-team Group 3, six points behind leaders Slovakia.
After facing the Dutch on Wednesday, then they have to face Luxembourg and the group leaders away from home and Stark admits maximum points are required if his side are to reach the finals in the Czech Republic.
“We need three wins to qualify,” said U21 star Callum Paterson.
“You can be optimistic and hope results elsewhere will go for you but history tells you that you need 15 points to qualify.
“We’ve got seven right now so nine more should get us there. But it’s easy saying that. Now we need to go out and get them.”