Steelmen’s Tony hopes fans will mark his 50th game with a few boos
Tony Watt will make his 50th appearance for Motherwell today, believing a flying start could just about land him a Scotland World Cup call.
The 27-year-old has one cap for the country, picked up in 2016 when he came on as a substitute in a friendly against the Czech Republic.
And having watched team-mate Stephen O’donnell play in a Euros campaign that highlighted Scotland’s need for a goal scorer, he knows the first doesn’t have to also be his last.
“It is amazing to play for your country and a call up is achievable,” Watt said, as he looked ahead to today’s Fir Park curtain raiser against Hibernian.
“I can see there are places in the squad up for grabs and if I score five or six goals in the first two months of the season, then you never know.
“I am not hanging my hat on it – I am just going to wait and see how it goes and let it play out.
“I went to the Czech Republic game and that was a good buzz.
“I was proud of the boys there representing Scotland, whether it was on the bench or playing.
“That’s not in my thoughts right now because first off we need to play some club football.
“My first marker has to be play every single game for Motherwell. But that is down to performance and work rate.
“I think it is the hardest I have been working and I think it is the most all rounded I have been.
“I feel like I am doing a great job in helping the team but I can maybe do a bit more in terms of the numbers.
“Last season I got seven goals and nine
assists and this time I am hoping to get double figures in both and see where it takes me.”
Hibs will have 2,000 of their fans at the game thanks to a gesture from Motherwell – a gesture that Watt expects will get him right back into the pre-pandemic swing of things.
“Aye, I can’t wait to get booed!” he said, smiling at the thought.
“I think I get booed everywhere, I think every stadium I go to I get a bit. I don’t know what I have done to deserve it.
“But no, it will be good. Hopefully the place will be rocking.”
Of more concern to the Scot is what the Motherwell supporters think of him as he seeks to consolidate his position as an established and senior figure in a much-changed squad.
“I don’t think I have always got the credit for the way I pressed or the way I worked,” said Watt.
“But I like to go out and leave it all out there and I think anywhere I have been they have noticed that. “People sometimes get a perception of how you are, guess how you are really, but I am a hard worker and I think if I press from the front then we have a chance.
“There is a pressure on me to turn up and give what I can but if you want to be a big player then you have got to have pressure and I want to do as well as I can here.”
Also, in a wider sense, through the rest of a career which has not always run smoothly.
“I am still ambitious, I want to win trophies. I want to play as many games as possible,” said Watt.
“I want to play until I am 35-36 at least. I don’t want to put a limit on it.
“In the last four or five years I have probably missed a season or seasonand-a-half of football, so why should I stop?
“I still feel I can get eight or nine years out of it and if that’s 40 games-per-season then I could get another 350 appearances in my career.”