Gemmill calls for one last hurrah from his squad as young Scots look to finish third in Toulon

Scot Gemmill has urged his Scotland Under-20 players to dust themselves down after the disappointment of their England defeat and try and win third place in the Toulon Tournament today.

The young Scots end their first Toulon event for 20 years with a third-fourth place playoff in Aubagne against a Czech Republic side to whom they lost 3-2 in the group stage.

They were well defeated by England in Thursday’s semifinal and could have few complaints about the 3-0 loss.

But Gemmill, the Scots coach, doesn’t want the youngsters to down tools and insists he’s desperate for Scotland to claim their highest finish at the Provence tournament.

“The tournament’s not over,” he stressed. “I just said to the players ‘I don’t want to hear any of them say that.’

“We want to finish in third place and we have got one more game to play. Qualifying for the semi-finals was brilliant and we were delighted because it meant two extra games for us.

“We need to recover from this physically and we need to shake off the disappointment of losing to England.

“We know the Czechs well now and we will prepare properly for this game.”

Gemmill’s No 2, Fulham coach and former Celtic midfielder Peter Grant, believes the players will have gained a huge amount for their time in Provence – with the highlight being a famous win against Brazil. Grant admits he’s been impressed with the attitude of the squad. “I was lucky to play against guys who went on to be world stars and it’s great experience for the young boys here in Toulon,” he said. “I didn’t get a lot of full international caps, but I was fortunate to play in a lot of underage tournaments and I’ve loved every minute of Toulon.

“I know [SFA performance director] Malky Mackay has started Project Brave and we have boys coming through. Sometimes we don’t realise what a good thing we’ve got until we go outside.

“I’ve been down in England for 20 years and I see a big difference when I come up here and the attitude from the boys in France has been magnificent. In England they talk about our attitude and we have to embrace that. A lot of youngsters are getting a firstteam chance.

“We need to help them when they come away with Scotland and when they see that badge realise how we’ll they’ve been doing. We know the national team is about results, especially the full team, so we need to get them into the situation where they can handle the ball and pressure.”