IT should have been the perfect homecoming.
Andy Robertson, the morning after scoring his first goal for Scotland, was returning to his old primary school to lend his support to a community football event. It ought to have been a euphoric moment for the 20-year-old as he surveyed the pitches where a decade earlier he had kicked a ball, no doubt dreaming of one day pulling on the dark blue of his country and scoring against England. For any Scotland player, it surely doesn't get much better.
Robertson, though, has not made the swift rise from part-timer with Queen's Park to Barclays Premier League regular and international in just 18 months without adopting an unwavering focus. The prevailing emotion, then, following the 3-1 loss to England was not elation at his maiden Scotland goal but frustration at what he felt had been an underpar defensive display.
"I didn't get much sleep," he said as he lent his support to Tesco Bank's Community Programme. "I went straight home and straight to bed, but there was a lot of tossing and turning. I was thinking about my defensive performance, not the goal. It's bittersweet."
Robertson was inadvertently involved in England's first two goals. For the first, he wasn't able to get close to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to prevent the Arsenal man connecting with Jack Wilshere's searching pass. For the second, he could do little to prevent the ball richocheting off him on to Wayne Rooney's head.
"Looking back at the first goal, I probably should have tucked in and tried to block him," he recalled. "It was an absolutely world-class ball so I don't know how much I would have been able to stop it. But I would have been much happier if I had followed him in and tried, rather than just letting him go. For the second goal, it could probably happen another 100 times and not fall on Wayne Rooney's head. I didn't have much time to react. I didn't know if someone was behind me so I felt I had to get a leg on it. Unfortunately, it went to the head of a deadly finisher."
Robertson may come to cherish his strike - a well-worked move involving Johnny Russell, his former Dundee United team-mate - but he may need some time.
"It was a proud moment for me and my family. But I've already forgotten about it. We were beaten 3-1 and that's the most annoying thing. If I could have swapped the goal for a clean sheet I would have."
Andy Robertson was supporting Tesco Bank's Community Programme
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article