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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Mark Walker

Scot Gemmill says there's 'no excuse' for Scotland under-21s drubbing

Scot Gemmill admitted he had no excuses after his kids were annihilated in Austria.

The young Scots were ripped apart in Wiener Neustadt after narrowly losing in Istanbul to the Turks with Wolfsburger talent Nikolas Veratschnig running amok after helping himself to four goals.

And although Scotland were missing the likes of Josh Doig, Connor Barron and promoted pair Tommy Conway and Ben Doak, Gemmill wasn't interested in using that as a reason for this calamity.

He said: "There's no excuse.

"Of course, we have got players missing, but there shouldn't be a gap like that nor should there be that kind of performance.

"Yes, it was good to see younger and different players, but there can be no excuses.

"Anyone who follows this age group will know that was unusual for this team and this squad.

"It also shows we need to get the stronger players and the ones we have worked with previously back for September.

"There is no getting away from it, it was individual errors.

"Defensively if you look at the goals, they were all errors and you get punished at this level.

"I won't ask for the players who are now in the full squad back because that is Steve Clarke's decision.

"That's a lot that will happen before then - there are quite a lot of them who won't know where they are playing next season.

"You have to challenge them and force a reaction from them and not accept this.

"It could easily have been more and they have to make sure it doesn't happen again and I have told them that."

Scotland actually made an encouraging start with Motherwell's Lennon Miller firing over on his first start for the Under 21s.

But the young Scots somehow managed to lose four first half goals in 17 awful minutes with Veratschnig netting a hat-trick and Red Bull Salzburg defender Samson Baidoo scoring the other one.

Gemmill introduced Dire Mebude, David Watson and Kai Fotheringham after an hour in a bid to salvage some respectability.

But they were soon outdone again in the 66th minute after that man Veratschnig grabbed his fourth goal of the game with another poached finish.

Austria had another goal disallowed and could have added to the tally in a night to forget for Scotland, who now face Spain and Malta in a double-header in September and will want to forget about their defeats this month.

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