SCOT GEMMILL praised his Scotland Under-21s after they secured a fantastic comeback win in Croatia thanks to a double from sub Connor McLennan.
In a huge shot in the arm for Scottish football after a truly miserable week for the senior side, the young Scots made it two wins out of two in their Euro 2021 group as they followed up a routine win against San Marino with a fantastic victory in Sibenik, despite trailing early on.
The young Scots improved markedly in the second half and Gemmill's substitutions paid off in spectacular style when he introduced McLennan and Glenn Middleton with 11 minutes left and they combined within three minutes for the Aberdeen winger to level.
But even better was to follow when McLennan headed in a Ross McCrorie cross to give Scotland a massive win, which delighted the Scots boss.
He said: "To beat a Pot One team away from home is a really top achievement.
"It definitely ranks up there in terms of wins against some top countries. I'm so pleased for the players. They have shown they are willing enough and clever enough to do it. They've shown they have got the belief.
"To play a team like Croatia away and go a goal down and still have that resilience and belief and intelligence to keep executing the game plan. It was a really mature performance. Both Connor and Glenn came on and made the difference."
Scotland had even suffered a huge pre-match blow when Chelsea starlet Billy Gilmour was ruled out with a muscle strain. Almost immediately, the Scots were pinned back and the hosts took a 10th-minute lead when an excellent cross from their captain, Dinamo Zagreb's Nikola Moro, for club team-mate Sandro Kulenovic gave Doohan absolutely no chance with a planted header into the net.
Scotland looked a lot better after the break and Gemmill threw on Middleton and McLennan and it paid off in sensational style just three minutes after they came on when the on loan Hibs star darted down the left wing and whipped in a cross for Aberdeen winger McLennan to take a touch and drill in a fantastic finish.
Scotland hadn't settled for just a point, though, and grabbed a shock late winner after Hornby had earlier been denied by a fine save from home keeper Adrian Semper, before Ross McCrorie arrowed in a brilliant cross with pace for the on-rushing McLennan to head in and clinch a brilliant and unexpected victory.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel