Kenny McLean has become Steve Clarke’s go-to guy after his regular starters run out of steam or a tactical tweak is needed.
And while many of the Norwich midfielder’s 25 caps have come from the bench, that hasn’t stopped McLean becoming one of the most important members of the Scotland squad – and when it comes to penalty shoot-outs, he’s the man.
The former St Mirren and Aberdeen player’s nerveless spot-kicks saw Scotland through to the Euros against Israel and Serbia, only for a knee injury to deny him a place at the championships.
But now the 30-year-old is just two games away from making the World Cup.
And he hopes to have the chance to impress Clarke tomorrow night in a friendly against Austria that might be meaningless to Scotland’s hosts, given that their Qatar dreams were ended by Wales last week, but is hugely important to McLean and his mates.
Then again, the Cambuslang-born midfielder relishes every opportunity to pull on a blue shirt and gaining his 25th cap against Poland last week was a career milestone.
“Playing for your country is something everyone wants to do when they are growing up, so to get to 25 is a pretty good achievement,” he smiled. “Hopefully, I’ve got some more in me.
“Going through school, you don’t really think it’s possible but I’ve worked hard to do it and I’m grateful.
“The Poland game was good, although losing the penalty at the end was disappointing. But I’ve been going away with Scotland for a few years now and have built some caps up, so getting to 25 is a bit of a milestone and I’d like to think there will be some more to come.
“I’m no spring chicken, but I do think I’ve got a bit left in me and still have something to offer the group, so we’ll see how far I can go.”
At least as far as Qatar, he hopes. But he is adamant that he doesn’t have to use his Euros heartache as a motivation.
“It was obviously a disappointment,” he admitted. “I would have loved to have been there and I envied the lads who were there playing for Scotland.
“But I don’t think I need any more motivation to go to the World Cup. It’s the World Cup – it speaks for itself.
“The disappointment of missing out on the Euros will always be there, but when going to a World Cup is at stake, you don’t need too much extra motivation.
“Everybody is desperate to get to it, not just me. We are going to do all we can to be there.”
There was a moment before kick-off in the England-Scotland Euros clash at Wembley, though, that typified the bond that exists within Clarke’s group.
The entire Scotland squad came over to greet McLean on the touchline as he carried out TV punditry duties.
“That was a special moment,” he recalled. "All the lads knew how despondent I was not to be there in a playing sense. They all came over and I just wished them all the best for the game.
“It was a tough one. I would love to have been there playing and being involved at some point.
“But I think I was more just happy for the lads and buzzing for the ones who were involved. Of course, from a selfish point of view I wanted to be there as a player but circumstances meant I wasn’t.
“I genuinely did try to get over that disappointment quickly and I was just happy for the lads who got that opportunity to go and play at the Euros, go and play at Wembley and put on such a good performance that day and get a decent result there.
“When we meet up with Scotland, everybody talks about the club-like togetherness we’ve got in the camp and it’s true.
“Everybody is tight and it’s a great group of lads. I think that has played a huge part in taking us to where we are just now.
“Obviously, we have got loads of quality and absolutely top players but you need that togetherness and the group that we’ve got is brilliant just now. The manager has built that up with everybody and he has been pretty consistent with the squads that he’s picked.
“The lads are producing. We are on a good run now and we have to continue with it.
“I think we’ve given a decent account of ourselves since then. We know we can do more than we showed at the Euros, but we’ve been on a good run since then. Momentum is obviously big.
“We were in against a decent seeded team in Poland on Thursday, albeit they changed a few things because they’ve got a massive game coming up on Tuesday.
“We should have won that game but we’ve still got the momentum. We are playing pretty well and getting results. That’s why this game against Austria is still important to us. We want to keep building and, friendly or not, we still want to win the games.
“I’d imagine Austria will want to win in front of their own fans after being so disappointed against Wales.
"I guess it will be tough for them to pick themselves up, but they have another chance to go and represent their country and if we were in that position, we would want to come back and put in a performance and get a result. I’m sure they are no different.
