For the likes of Callum McGregor and Greg Taylor, the midweek international experience has been a good one. After all, despite being pegged back by a dubious penalty award, Celtic’s representatives both had good games in Scotland’s 1-1 draw with Poland at Hampden, however, for another international representative from the Celtic squad, it was a different story.
Stephen Welsh was part of a Scotland U-21 side who lost 2-0 at Tynecastle and left themselves lying in fourth place in the qualifying group ahead of a trip to face Kazakhstan on Wednesday night. Scotland were, it must be said, off colour on Friday night against Turkey with the only real surprise being the Turks didn’t score more than two.
Yet Welsh showed a level of maturity post-match when he fronted up to the press despite deflecting past his own goalkeeper in the game. As reported in the Scotsman, showing a personal and collective responsibility for the defeat is something he and his teammates are willing to take on board –
“That first-half performance was one of, if not the worst I’ve seen from a Scotland team at any age group. From past experience going through the age groups 17s, 19s and now 21s, even if a side is better than you – you still work harder than them.
“I don’t think we worked 50 per cent to what Turkey did, although they were very good players.
“We weren’t aggressive enough, didn’t think we applied ourselves enough at all and on the ball I think we were very, very poor. We looked in shock when we got the ball, we were shaky and maybe a bit of nervousness but I think we need to move on from that now.
“We’ll analyse the game over the next couple of days but we’ve got a massive game against Kazakhstan coming up and we can’t lose that, we need to go out and win.”
And it was a lack of ‘application’ which concerned the Scotland skipper as much as anything else, stating honestly that it was a lack of completing the basics that let the side down, something Welsh accepts is simply not acceptable at international level –
“Not working hard enough. Not giving 100 per cent in my opinion. As I said, we need to look back on that and see but then again they are very good on the ball, we didn’t get within three or four yards of them every time they got the ball.
“The centre-halves were really comfortable, they didn’t have any pressure on them at all, midfielders I thought we made them look really good although the quality they have got is good. We weren’t getting tight enough, not aggressive enough and simply not good enough.”
For Welsh there is a big game on the horizon, with the defender very much likely to be involved in the match-day squad at the very least for the upcoming Glasgow Derby on Sunday, but for now all thoughts are on Kazakhstan on Wednesday, before Welsh turns his attention to at trip to Ibrox and a vital game in a tight title race –
“It’s no secret that there is a big game coming round the corner but for me it’s about Kazakhstan and I can focus on Celtic after that. My full focus is on Scotland right now as I’m sure all the boys – I don’t know how many of us are away on international duty – will be focussing on the international games now and then come Wednesday morning I’ll be thinking about the next game. Ready to go.”
Niall J
