Celtic's Anthony Ralston is embracing his role within the Scotland national team as he prepares for Monday's crucial UEFA Nations League match against Poland.
Scotland earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over 10-man Croatia at Hampden Park on Friday night, which was their second successive clean sheet and has helped give the Tartan Army hope that relegation from section A1 can be avoided. Should Scotland manage to clinch a win in Poland and scores elsewhere go their way, they could even be in with a change of secure entry to the Nations League quarter-finals.
Ralston, who turned 26 on Friday (November 16), has 17 caps for Scotland, yet still often is scapegoated due to his lack of regular game time at club level.
He gave away a penalty which saw Poland go two goals up in the return fixture but since then he's shown that he can be a dependable asset to Steve Clarke's squad, both defensively and combining well further up the pitch with ex-Celtic starlet Ben Doak.
Reflecting on his experiences during this latest campaign, Ralston said: “There was a lot of positives, a few individual errors, one of them being my own, but you learn from these. You gain experiences. We’ve gained it both on a personal level and as a team, so we’ll get ready.
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“We know the qualities that they have, of course, the same as Friday night, but the win gave us massive confidence and we’ll go over there confident and ready to go.
“Croatia are a top team, good top players, we were aware of that coming into the game. But we knew, especially from the last camp, that the performances were there but it was just the end result, and none of us were content with that.
“To come away with a result, especially against a team like Croatia, we’re really happy with. We’ve got the win and we move on to Poland.”
However, the Celtic defender doesn't believe it's now his position to lose and is just cherishing every international opportunity he gets.
“The way I view it, it’s just an honour to represent my country every time I do it,” he explained. “I don’t take it for granted.
“My family come out and support me every time. I try and cherish every moment whilst it’s here. I’ll continue to try and do the best job I can for my country.”
