Tell it to the agony aunt

● Devlin aims to keep helping McKenna. . . this time in Dark Blue

He has been agony aunt, room-mate and flatmate to Scott McKenna. Now Aberdeen’s Mikey Devlin hopes he can add international team-mate to the list.

The Aberdeen defenders have been named in Steve Clarke’s Scotland squad for next week’s European championship qualifiers against Cyprus and Kazakhstan and Devlin would love nothing more than to team-up with his clubmate in the Dark Blue for what would be the first time.

He said: “It would be special to play alongside my flatmate Scotty and one of my best pals Stephen O’Donnell is also there so it would be great if we all played.

“I room with Scotty unfortunately. I’m sick of the sight of him, honestly. I’ve been his counsellor for the last 18 months.

“I’m only joking; Scott has a great temperament and he doesn’t get too up or too down.

“He’s faced rumours about opportunities to move on and that can test you. But he has come through it with flying colours. He takes everything in his stride as he knows he has a job to do here and with Scotland.”

While McKenna’s return to the international fold from injury is no surprise to Devlin, he has had to prove himself all over again after getting within touching distance of the national team under Alex McLeish before he paid the price for the poor start to the qualifying campaign.

The arrival of Steve Clarke left Devlin at square one but, having made his debut against Russia last month before featuring at Hampden for the first time in the win against San Marino, the Dons defender is delighted to be in the fold once more.

He added: “There is part of me that wonders if my chance has passed me by.

“I’d been involved in a couple of squads and Scott and I had been playing well together but I picked up an injury.

“I wondered if my chance had come and gone so it was a real dream to get the opportunity in the last two fixtures. I feel I came back full of confidence after playing and training with and against top players.

“It’s always beneficial to have that experience and exposure against top players.

“When the SFA made the decision to remove Alex McLeish and bring in Steve Clarke I didn’t know if I’d be involved.

“But it was a great boost to be involved at club level as I didn’t have the strongest end to the season and didn’t expect to be involved in the summer squads.

“It was a real boost knowing the manager liked me and wanted to see me involved and I feel I’ve given a good account of myself. Getting the chance to play in the last two games was great.”

The final two group games of the campaign carry no importance after Scotland’s bid to qualify from the group failed.

But with a second route available via the Nations League play-offs, Devlin believes the two fixtures are far from meaningless.

He said: “Results haven’t been what we’ve wanted in the last six games but ultimately we are two games from a major finals and we have to use the next two games to build as much momentum as we can.”