Scotland are two matches away from their first European Under-21s Championship since 1996 as they go into their penultimate match of the group, against Croatia at Tynecastle on Thursday afternoon.
Scot Gemmill’s side currently lie one point behind Czech Republic with a game in hand, and are one point ahead of Thursday’s opponents Croatia. They will go into the game with confidence having defeated Lithuania, Czech Republic and San Marino in the last month.
Hibs’ midfielder Kyle Magennis has been ruled out due to injury along with Aaron Hickey, Harrison Ashby, Aaron Hickey, and Kai Kennedy and Fiorini and Stephen Welsh taking called up.
Billy Gilmour has been included in his first Scotland squad for a year, after recovering from an injury in the summer.
Ahead of the game striker Fraser Hornby said: “I always look forward to coming away with the guys when the squad is announced but these two games are massive for us. I’ve been in this set-up since the under-16s and it seems like every year this group of players is getting stronger and stronger.
“This is definitely the strongest group I’ve been involved in and we are in a great position in the group right now. There’s no reason why we can’t go all the way.
“Breaking the scoring record in San Marino was a great achievement for me personally and I think it’s set us up nicely in the group. As a striker I’m desperate to get goals for the team. In the last two games I’ve been able to do that and they’ve put us in a great position which has been pleasing.
“We’ve been together a lot recently which has been great and created a club feel around the camp. We’ve had three great camps and we’ve looked stronger on the pitch. That has been down to us training on a daily basis and building up those connections on the pitch.
“It’s great to have Billy (Gilmour) back in the squad. He’s not been annoying me too much yet off the pitch but I’m sure by the end of the trip I’ll be pulling my hair out.
“It’s great he’s back from injury and having a player of his calibre around will only help boost our squad. He’s really confident in his own ability which is great to see from a player so young. He’s pushed into the Chelsea first team which is credit to him really and shows how good a player he is.
“Qualifying would be massive for everyone in Scotland. It’s not often that teams qualify for major tournaments. It would be huge if we were to get there but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. Thursday is big and then we’ll switch our focus to the Greece away match.
“We’ll be watching the men’s A squad when we get back to the hotel after the Croatia game so hopefully it’s a successful day all round for the country.
“They (Croatia) were a very good team when we played them last time. On our day we can beat anyone so we’ll be full of confidence and hopefully we can get a positive result.”
Fans can watch all the action from Edinburgh on the Scotland National Team YouTube Channel.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
