ANTHONY Ralston has thanked Andy Robertson for helping him to establish himself in the Scotland side and attributed the resurgence the national team have enjoyed since the Euro 2024 finals to the example set by the Liverpool left-back.
Robertson will become his country’s joint third most-capped footballer in the Nations League match against Poland in the Kazimierza Gorski National Stadium in Warsaw this evening.
The 30-year-old will be making his 80th appearance in a dark blue jersey in the Group A1 fixture and will move alongside Manchester United great Darren Fletcher in the all-time list.
Only Jim Leighton (91) and Sir Kenny Dalglish (102) will have played more for their homeland than him after tonight.
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Ralston, the Celtic defender who helped Scotland to keep a clean sheet and beat Croatia 1-0 at Hampden on Friday night, believes the former Queen’s Park, Dundee United and Hull City man deserves to be mentioned alongside those icons.
He was indebted for the encouragement which he received from his captain when he was, despite not having featured regularly for his club last term, asked to start at wing-back in the Euro 2024 matches against Germany, Switzerland and Hungary back in June.
He also lauded Robertson for spearheading the revival which Steve Clarke’s men, who might qualify for the Nations League quarter-finals if they win tonight and Croatia lose to Portugal in Split, have undergone since the summer.
“For sure, it's a terrific achievement,” said Ralston. “It's one that, when you start out on your international career, you can only dream of doing. I will be absolutely delighted for him when he completes that milestone.
“It's a proud moment for him and his family and everyone involved. To get as many caps as he's has, and to also have done that whilst being the captain, is a real landmark. So it's definitely a proud moment for him.
“He's been great with me. Leading by example, that's what he does. From the very start. On Friday night he did that. So he deserves all the milestones and the accolades which come with it.”
The teenager, who is on loan at English Championship outfit Middlesbrough this season, retained his place in the starting line-up against Croatia despite John McGinn being available again and more than justified his selection by performing well and setting up the winning goal.
Ralston worked with the Ayrshire-born player when he was a kid at Parkhead and is confident that he will not be affected by the praise which he has been lavished with or the attention that is now getting.
“I know him from my time at Celtic,” he said. “He came in there as a young lad. But he's still as young! I trained with him and he obviously had that flair even then. He's rapid, you can see that for yourself.
“He's done brilliantly every chance he's got for Scotland. I'm delighted for him for the way he played against Croatia, for him and his family. So, he just needs to keep his head down and keep working and taking the opportunities like he has done.
“He definitely is humble. That's the main thing, mentally keeping that. Also doing the work in training, playing and taking opportunities like he's done.
“You can see how excited everyone is about him. It gives us that extra outlet attacking wise. He can go direct, he can go 1 v 1. He did both on Friday night.”
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Ralston was pleased that Scotland ended their 10 game winless run in competitive matches against Luka Modric and his compatriots on Friday night and gave the Tartan Army a victory to cheer again.
But he is focusing fully on the Poland match and is keen to pick up another three points.
“It was a great win, we were delighted,” he said. “We knew from the last camp that the performances were there, we just needed to top it off, which we did on Friday night.
“It's been tough, but we were working towards that. There’s obviously quite a lot of negativity that comes with not getting the results, but Friday was a night to enjoy.
Ralston continued: “You could see that obviously it wasn't the perfect performance against Croatia. But that's the mindset that we've all got in there - we know we can be better than that.
“Okay, we've got a good result against a very good team, but there's also other aspects that we'll look at to improve. We will work towards what we want to achieve. That's the mindset. Instead of looking at it as, ‘Okay, we've won against Croatia and that's enough’. We'll keep going.
“We were just missing that final pass, that cutting edge, that finish or whatever it may be. But we found that on Friday night with John and hopefully we can do it again on Monday.”
