IT is a modern twist on an old classic Scottish football motto, but the national team seem to have adopted the mantra that the team who swings together, wins together. For the avoidance of doubt, we are referring to golf here.
Scott McKenna has revealed indeed just how the Scotland team got back into the swing of things after the deflation of the defeat to Ukraine last week, lifting the mood around the camp by escaping en masse to the golf course as they looked to reset ahead of the three Nations League matches that still lie in wait this month.
The first of those comes tonight against Armenia at Hampden, and McKenna believes that by suffering together and commiserating with one another over a round on the links, the Scotland players have shaken off any melancholy that descended upon them following the end of their World Cup dream, and are ready to come out swinging ahead of their next challenge.
“Obviously there was a lot of disappointment after last Wednesday night,” McKenna said.
“Thursday was quite flat. We trained Friday morning and had a couple of days away.
“Quite a lot of us went away golfing together and spent a bit of time together and came back Sunday with all the focus on the game against Armenia.
“It’s not normal for that to happen with the national team, but, with having seven days between the games, it was the correct thing to do to try and get everyone’s minds off it and then come back in and have a fresh start.
“It was at Archerfield. I played with John Souttar and Scott McTominay. We were terrible on the front nine and better on the back nine, but there’s no way Scott plays off 14. It’s more like 34!
“After the disappointment on Wednesday night, it was very helpful. A lot of the boys have been in a lot of squads together now and there is that club atmosphere. We’ve had success in the past which, obviously, helps.
“You all need to stick together through the good and the bad. There are important games coming up and, hopefully, that sort of team bonding will help us going forward.
“It’s the start of a new campaign and we all know how important the Nations League has been for us in the past, obviously as we qualified for the Euros through that.
“I think it is important that we try to finish the season on a high with three wins.”
McKenna knows a thing or two about how quickly fortunes can change for the better in football, with his Nottingham Forest side winning promotion to the English Premier League through the play-offs after a dramatic turnaround under new manager Steve Cooper.
“We finished 18th or 19th I think last season,” he said. “After seven games this season we were bottom of the league.
“When the new manager came in, the first step was to try and get over the dotted line from relegation. We have just slowly built on that.
“I don’t think anyone would have expected us to end up winning promotion.”
Perhaps not, and even fewer would know about the hand that Steve Clarke indirectly played in that win over Huddersfield at Wembley, with Forest leaning on some of the lessons of the Scotland manager’s own play-off success.
“Obviously with a play-off game there is a different atmosphere,” McKenna said.
“I didn’t play in the play-off games that got us to the Euros but I was part of the squad and saw how the boys prepared.
“Obviously, I have [former Scotland coach] Steven Reid at Forest as well. He actually stole a couple of Steve Clarke’s quotes when we were having team meetings heading into the play-off semi-final and final.
“It was actually one a lot of the lads bought into. I think having that sort of bond and that sort of experience helped us get over the line; ‘Don’t play with the fear of failure, play with the anticipation of success.’
“That was one that was plastered all round the dressing room going into the semi-finals and final. That was one Steve Clarke put up before the Serbia game.
“For a lot of people, going into those games, it’s hard. ‘I don’t want to be the one that makes the mistake. I don’t want to be the one that costs the team.’ You can’t play like that.
“You’ve got to play with freedom and try to think about the positives and what you can do to impact the game instead of just floating through, not wanting to be the one that makes the mistake.”
Having now made the English top-flight, McKenna is hoping that the experience he gains at such a high level will only help him as he looks to press his claim for more game-time on the left of the Scotland defence. And he is desperate to begin building that case tonight against the Armenians.
“Kieran Tierney has been a mainstay in the team and has been doing so well, so with him missing hopefully I can do enough in training to give the manager a decision to make,” he said. “Hopefully I can push for minutes on the pitch now.
“Do I feel more ready now? Definitely, because most of my caps came under Alex McLeish and then at the start under the manager.
“With Kieran coming back it was always going to be difficult, then there’s Grant Hanley playing well, Liam Cooper is the captain of Leeds in the Premier League. So it was always going to be difficult for me.
“But hopefully now I can force my way in and get more minutes as we go on.”
