JOHN MCGINN admits he is still hurting from his horror miss against Ukraine, but has vowed to get back into the goalscoring habit and atone for his error by helping fire Scotland to more major tournaments.
The man who has become a Tartan Army hero was one of the villains of the World Cup semi-final play-off defeat last week as he passed up a golden opportunity to haul Scotland back into the game at 2-0 down with half an hour still to play.
With the Ukrainians visibly tiring by that point, manager Steve Clarke said after the match that if McGinn had scored his side would likely have forced the tie to extra-time at the very least, a theory that still haunts the Aston Villa man.
When asked if he has had a chance to reflect on the defeat as a whole, McGinn said: “Reflect is probably the wrong word because I was hurting - and hurting badly.
“That’s part of learning and being a player, you make a decision in a split second. On this occasion it was the wrong one and it will probably live with me for a long, long time.
“But you can either dwell on it, keep looking at it and thinking what you could have changed, or you can go out and try to score nineteen times like I did against Armenia trying to avenge it. It didn’t work on Wednesday but I will do the exact same thing on Saturday [against Ireland].
“My goal return for Scotland has been pretty good so I am keen to add to it, I’m sure a chance will come and I need to take it.”
McGinn thinks that he perhaps overthought the placement of his header as the ball spun up invitingly off Ukrainian keeper Georgiy Buschan.
“I promised I wouldn’t watch it but I woke up the next morning and then had to watch it back,” he said.
“In that split second you don’t see the other side, you make a decision at the time and it was the wrong one. I remember looking up at the ball and seeing the goalkeeper and defender moving the other way. I tried to be too precise with it and paid the price for it.
“Looking back and analysing it, analysing it in detail, it’s easy to say I should have gone to the other side. But there will be a time when it comes again.
“The disappointing thing for me in my Scotland career is that it’s always the easier ones I seem to miss. I score the more challenging ones so I have to practice those moments and don’t be so keen to score. Don’t think about what’s happening next and focus on the moment.
“After it, the boys were saying “why is it all the difficult ones you score?” I was like, cheers lads. It’s not as if I’ve not been thinking about it every day.
“It still hurts me the same way it hurts everyone else in the country. It was a really disappointing night for me and for everyone but it’s one we are really keen to avenge.”
