Hampden hurt ‘must fire us up for Euros’

John Mcginn has urged Scotland to ensure they don’t “collapse” after their World Cup heartache. Mcginn admits it has taken a long time to get over the devastating blow of last Wednesday’s play-off loss to Ukraine.

The Aston Villa midfielder said he has to shoulder some of the blame for his horror second-half miss when he screwed a header wide with the goal gaping.

But, with the internal inquest having since been carried out by players and management, Mcginn is determined to help spark a swift recovery in the Nations League opener against Armenia.

After qualifying for last summer’s Euro 2020 via play-offs on the back of Nations League success, the Scots know how much the contest could mean as they bid to get back to a major finals again.

And Mcginn is convinced Steve Clarke’s squad have the quality and desire to ensure they make it to Euro 2024, then realise their World Cup dreams two years later.

He said: “It’s been tough. We’ve been hurting the same way I’m sure the whole country and the supporters and everyone involved has been hurting because we know we’re capable of so much more.

“It’s been a hard week, definitely. Probably the toughest we’ve had as a group for a while as it’s been so positive with eight games unbeaten.

“The hardest thing for us and the reason why everyone is hurting, frustrated, angry is because we know we’re capable of so much more.

“On the night, we didn’t turn up – myself included.

“We all wanted to get to the World Cup. We had a dream of what we wanted to achieve. Now it’s a balance between using the hurt from the game to spur us on to get promoted in the Nations League and make sure we’re in Germany in 2024.

“The good thing about this team is there’s no egos. There’s no one saying: ‘We should have done this, he should have done that’. We win together as a team and we lose together. That will be a strength of ours and we’ve got to keep being as together as we are and support each other the way we have done.

“We need to make sure we don’t let what we’ve built collapse over one result.”

At 27, Mcginn will still have plenty of life in his career when the 2026 World Cup is held in North America.

And, with key players like Andy Robertson, Billy Gilmour, Callum Mcgregor, Che Adams and Kieran Tierney all in their 20s, the former Hibernian and St Mirren player is confident there is a bright future.

He said in a Scottish FA interview: “It’s all healthy and we need to keep remembering that. We’ve come a long, long way, but we’ve still got another few steps to jump and we’re ready to do that now.

“And hopefully get to ‘Vision A’, which would be an amazing achievement for us.

“The World Cup is still the dream and that’s why it’s so raw. Being a wee guy growing up you want to be like the Scotland team of ’98 and get there.

“We came so close this time around and I’m sure the boys will still be around for 2026. But first of all in our mind is to finish top of the Nations League group, get ourselves into pot two for Germany and Euro 2024, then build from there.

“Our aim is to qualify for the next two tournaments and we’re going to do whatever we can to do

that.”

SHOCKER: John Mcginn reacts after missing an open goal against Ukraine.