Robinson urges Well players to push for Euro 2020 selection
Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has c hal l e nged more of his players to force their way into Scotland's Euro 2020 reckoning.
Fir Park defenders Stephen O'donnell and Declan Gallagher both played in Scotland's play- off win over Serbia and Robinson wants them and others to push for selection for next summer's finals.
Scotland Under- 21 pair Allan Campbell and Barry Maguire missed out on qualification for their European finals, but Robinson feels every young S c ot t i s h pl ayer s hould be boosted by the progress of Steve Clarke's squad.
Speaking ahead of today's visit to St Johnstone, Robinson said: "I got asked, ' Would it be a surprise if Allan would be in the Euros squad?' And it wouldn't surprise me.
"Anything put in front of the wee man, he rises to the challenge. Is he good enough to do that? He certainly is.
"There's a real goal. From my experience with Northern Ireland, the team that qualified
certainly wasn't the squad that went to the Euros. There were quite a few changes and quite a few people came late.
"Why can't Tony Watt get in the squad? Mark O'hara? Why can't those boys push? I'm not saying they will, but they have certainly got the talent to and Steve is very open to looking at people. I think all the younger Scottish players have got real motivation now and it is certainly up for grabs."
St Johnstone had a s l ow start to the campaign but have enjoyed a recent good run and are up to eighth place having also booked a Betfred Cup showdown with Motherwell at Fir Park in the last 16.
It is the Steelmen's turn to travel to Perth today, however, and midfielder Murray
Davidson admits Well's own recent rise up the table shows just how tight the top flight is, with only 10 points separating the teams from fifth down to last place.
"I'm not one for looking at the league table so early on but I know it's tight," he said. "Look at Motherwell a few weeks ago. They were bottom of the table but have probably won something like four out of their last six games and are now up to seventh. So its extremely tight but it is extremely early and we're looking to carry on the run we're on to get as high up the league as possible."