A sensational overhead kick by former Hibs’ star ‘Super’ John McGinn rescued a point for Scotland in their World Cup qualifier against Austria at Hampden last night.
The Scots displayed great character to twice come from behind to secure a share of the points.
After a lacklustre opening period, Steve Clarke’s men rallied and dominated the latter part of the first-half which ended goalless.
Sasa Kalajdzic gave the visitors the lead 10-minutes after the restart when he was first to react to a save from David Marshall.
Scotland equalised in the 71st minute when Grant Hanley headed home a Stephen O’Donnell free-kick for his first international goal in eight years.
With ten-minutes remaining Kalajdzic headed in his second goal of the night but the Scots refused to lie down and McGinn’s acrobatic effort made the final score 2-2.
This was the midfielder’s eighth goal in 16 games for his country and after the final whistle he told BBC Scotland: “I was lucky, I thought I was offside. VAR down the road has got a lot of negatives but the positive is you’re trained and used to just putting it in the net and dealing with it after.
“I was just waiting on the flag going up. Delighted, really important goal, really important test of character for us. Before, we could easily have crumbled and lost 3-1 or 4-1, but we’ve got belief and we showed that second-half.
“That’s something that we’re known for now – we’ve got a brilliant team spirit,” McGinn added. “No-one blames each other, we’re all fighting for our country and a place at the World Cup. It won’t be easy but we know we’re more than capable.
“The only disappointment tonight is knowing how important the home games are. Teams concede goals and it’s how you react to that and we reacted in the best possible way.
“The way we set up at the start maybe wasn’t allowing us to get up the park, but we’ve got flexible players; we made a little change and it certainly helped us. I’ve no idea if it was a good game to watch but in the end it was a good point.”
Scotland: Marshall; Hendry, Hanley, Tierney; O’Donnell, McTominay, McGinn, Armstrong (Adams, ’66), Robertson; Christie (McLean, 88′), Dykes (McGregor, ’78)
Unused subs: Gordon, McLaughlin, Fleck, Gallagher, McKenna, Fraser, Nisbet, McBurnie, Palmer,
Austria: Schlager; Lainer, Dragovic, Lienhart, Alaba; Baumgartner, Ilsanker, Grillitsch, Schlager; Grbic (Schaub, ’68), Kalajdzic
Unused subs: Pervan, Lindner, Ulmer, Ranftl, Trauner, Sabitzer, Gregoritsch, Trimmel, Schopf, Onisiwo, Friedl
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.
