Father-to-be Shankland may miss Scots duty
THE impending birth of his first child may mean that Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland is forced to dash away from Steve Clarke’s Scotland camp this week.
Shankland’s partner, Nicole, was due to deliver on Friday night, just as Livingston were scoring a last-minute winner to take all three points from a game they dominated at Tannadice.
The 24-year-old, who is attracting interest from Burnley, will have little time to dwell on the result and the manner of the defeat before teaming up with Scotland for Thursday night’s European Championship play-off against Israel and the Nations League doubleheader against Slovakia and the Czech Republic but, if the baby makes its arrival, Shankland will head off to the maternity wing.
There has been a degree of fortitude in that all three Scotland games are at home, ensuring there is no problems with travelling to be present for the birth.
‘The due date was Friday but I don’t think it affected my performance,’ said Shankland. ‘We are both so excited and can’t wait. To become a dad and to help Scotland win would be special. It would be the perfect pick-me-up after that result on Friday night.
‘It is a huge week coming up.’ The striker won his first Scotland caps against Russia and San Marino, and netted his inaugural goal for the national side against the latter.
Clarke has a paucity of options when it comes to leading the line, although Shankland conceded that he would need to process Friday’s dismal showing against Livingston before he could get his head ready for the Scotland games on the horizon.
‘I’m looking forward to Scotland enormously but I won’t start thinking about it until later on today.
‘I needed some time to get over the disappointment of losing the match against Livingston.
‘It is sore for a couple of days which is normal, but I will be ready to go again. It was a frustrating night and it was a sore one to lose the goal so late.’
The result enabled Gary Holt’s side to leapfrog Dundee United and move up to sixth place. And for all that the win was claimed courtesy of a 90th-minute Alan Forrest winner, it was no less than Livingston deserved after dominating the entirety of the game at Tannadice.
Micky Mellon’s side have won just one of their five home games this term, although Shankland was scathing of the style Friday night’s game was played in.
‘Livingston are frustrating to play against,’ he said. ‘I don’t think the ball was on the grass for more than five seconds at any one time.
‘It was horrible but that was the challenge and we need to stand up to it. I thought we did that even though it was not suited to how we want to play.
‘We did cope reasonably well up until the last minute of the game when they got the goal. It was a real sickener to concede so late.
‘We were under pressure in the second half but I thought we were holding in there.’