Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has challenged 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 Scottish player should be boosted by the progress of Steve Clarke’s squad.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Premiership visit of 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 as he has proved.
“I think all the younger Scottish players have got real motivation now and it is certainly up for grabs.”
The former Northern Ireland assistant manager saw how Euro 2016 boosted his own country.
“I saw what happened with Northern Ireland, the kudos, money and publicity it brings to the game,” he said.
“In Northern Ireland and Scotland we are the first to criticise ourselves, with our humour we take the mick out of ourselves. It’s now nice there can’t be any negativity and it will just be positivity heading into the Euros.
“The players coming back to me will be very motivated to get picked in that squad because there’s no guarantees with six months to go.”
Campbell is naturally driven but is using Scotland recognition as a goal after winning his 24th and final under-21 cap in Tuesday’s defeat by Greece.
The 22-year-old said: “It was gutting we were one game short of qualifying but it’s something I can learn from. It’s a huge honour to see how many caps I won.
“I have learnt a lot especially from playing against different types of players. It’s something I hope to carry on in my career.
“I just need to keep kicking on and my dream would be to play for my country.
“But there’s a lot to go, I just need to keep playing well for Motherwell and trying to impress the gaffer at Scotland and you never know what happens.
“Everybody has a chance if they go back to their clubs and perform well, everyone’s dream is to get to the A squad.”
