Walker shows why Scotland call may just be matter of time
YOU’LL never please everybody. As soon as Gordon Strachan unveiled his Scotland squads for a couple of friendly kickabouts the other day, all and sundry immediately took to that online harrumphing facility known as social media to moan, mimp, grouse and groan about why such-and-such was in but so-and-so wasn’t and how thingymebob got a call-up but whitshisface didn’t.
By all accounts, if wee Gordon had drafted in the village elder from a remote tribe in Borneo who had a great, great, great grandfather from the Yetts o’ Muckhart, the nation probably would have had more idea who he was than Oliver Burke or Liam Cooper.
One name that could have been tossed into the international hat was that of Jamie Walker, the in-form Hearts youngster who scored his fifth goal in his last seven games as Robbie Neilson’s team made it four wins in a row with this narrow, hard-earned triumph at Dens Park. The 22-year-old has been hampered this season by a knee injury but he is in fine fettle just now and his team-mate, Alim Ozturk, is well aware of the qualities that Walker possesses.
“Maybe the recent squads came too soon after his injury for him but I see some of the names in there and I think he is better,” admitted the Turkish defender, who led a youthful Hearts backline to a fourth consecutive clean sheet as the Tynecastle team cemented third place in the table.
“I see him every day at training and I am impressed. At 22, he is still young and he is going to be a big name. I am sure he will be called up soon.” With some rejigging required in the defensive areas due to injuries to Igor Rossi and Callum Patterson, the Hearts rearguard almost had to produce an ID card to get on to the Dens Park turf. The kids were all right, though.
“The other three members of our back four were all 19 so I felt like the grandpa,” added the positively wizened 23-year-old Ozturk. “With Igor and Callum out, everyone was asking how the young guys would cope so I am really happy for them.”
The crucial goal came when Walker, who had fluffed his lines inside the first 20 seconds when clean through, made amends in the 53rd minute with a tidy finish past Dundee goalkeeper Scott Bain. The latter is a man who has made Strachan’s squad for the match with the Czech Republic later this month.
“Coming from where I have come from in the last four or five years, it is a good achievement and I am proud of it,” said Bain, who was toiling away as a labourer while playing part-time with Alloa having been released by Aberdeen a few seasons ago.
“When I was getting up early and grafting on a building site, then going to training at night, it was a slog. But I have worked hard and I am just enjoying it.”
Bain and his Dundee team-mates face Dundee United next weekend in a derby match that will have sizeable ramifications. A win for bottom-of-the-table United would prevent the preacher reading out the last rites for another week while Dundee still have their sights on a fourth place finish. It should be a fairly feisty affair. “We need the points as much as them,” Bain said. “We need to be top six. That’s the only way we will have a good successful season.”