JORDAN Archer spoke last night of his pride at being called up the full Scotland squad for the first time. Having being informed over the telephone by Scotland goalkeeping coach Jim Stewart, against whose Nottingham Forest side he had just played, that Gordon Strachan had requested his services for the forthcoming double header against Lithuania and Malta, the Millwall goalkeeper made a couple of phone calls of his own.

Firstly, the 24-year-old from Walthamstow broke the news to his emotional mum Fiona MacRitchie, whose parents moved from Clydebank to Stevenage when she was young, then he contacted his former Scotland youth team coach Jim Leighton to thank him for all he has done to aid his development. Not least helping him to get over his mistakes, a few of which came in a 6-0 defeat in a Scotland jersey at Under-21 level to a stacked English side at Bramall Lane in August 2013.

While the Scotland team had a largely unfamiliar look to it, the likes of Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley and John Stones all played that night. Rather than be haunted by it, Archer has moved on with his career and was a key cog in the Millwall side which reached an FA Cup quarter final at his old club Tottenham Hotspur last season, not to mention winning promotion to the Championship. So keen is he to get started on his international career that he was the first man to report to Mar Hall on Sunday, just on the opposite bank of the Clyde from where his grandparents used to live.

“That probably was the worst moment of my Scotland career so far,” admitted Archer. “I was a young keeper at the time and goalkeepers make mistakes, especially at a young age.

“But I have pushed on a lot since then,” he added. “Back then, I was at Spurs and hadn’t had a lot of men’s football. If you look at the England team, they had players who had been involved in a lot of senior games.

“To be a keeper you’ve got to be strong mentally because if you make a mistake it often ends up in the back of the net. So it’s a testament to my character that I put it behind me and haven’t looked back since. Jim Leighton was the Under-21 goalkeeping coach at the time, so he sat me down as he’s made mistakes in his career and he told me how to deal with it and move on.”

Archer doesn’t expect much in the way of game time in the next week or so- he just plans to soak up experience from the likes of Craig Gordon and Allan McGregor. “I’m honoured to be here,” he said. “Ever since I left the Under-21 set-up it has been my aim to get a call-up and now I’m here. I flew up and was the first one here - I think I got in about 3.30pm on the Sunday. So I went in and introduced myself to the gaffer. All the boys have made me feel very welcome.

“As soon as I got the call up, I had a big grin on my face. I went straight on the phone to my mum and she said she had a tear in her eye when I told her about the call-up. It’s a proud moment for my whole family. I was also n the phone to Jim [Leighton] to thank him. He told me to go and enjoy it.”