RANGERS forward Josh McPake wants Scotland under-19s to take out their frustrations on Andorra this lunchtime.
Billy Stark’s young guns threw away a two-goal lead to only draw with Belarus on Wednesday night and now need a win to get their European qualifying campaign back on track.
McPake reckons the outcome would have been different if he had been awarded a second penalty late in the game – and can’t believe the ref gave him a yellow card for diving instead.
He said: “We’ve still got a good chance of getting through the group but we’re annoyed we didn’t win the other night. It’s frustrating as we got ourselves in to such a good position but let it slip.
“We were coasting at 2-0 but just didn’t take our chances. We hit the post and the bar late on and should have won. The way we started I felt we could have gone on to score four or five but we let them back into it.
“But I don’t know how I got booked for that challenge on me late in the game. I was tripped in a goalscoring position so there was no reason for me to go down. So if we had got a second penalty it could have made a big difference.
“But there are still two games to go. First up is Andorra and we have to make up for the other night by making sure we keep our performance levels up throughout the 90 minutes and get the win.”
McPake has emerged as one of the brightest young talents in the Rangers youth system in recent times and committed his future to Ibrox earlier this summer as he penned a new long-term contract to keep him at the club until 20222.
The 18-year-old was then sent out on loan to gain first team experience and he has made four appearances for Dundee as James McPake’s side look to win promotion back to the Premiership this term.
And the Ibrox kid is only focusing on the task in hand at present and not what lies ahead under the guidance of Steven Gerrard.
McPake said: “I’m really enjoying it at Dundee and playing in the Championship. It’s real men’s football – totally different from academy football. So it’s good to get that experience of training and playing at first-team level. It’s a different world to what I’ve been used to.
“I’ve got a new contract at Rangers but I want to keep my focus on Dundee for the next few months and try to prove myself there first. And after that we’ll see what happens.”
Graeme Macpherson
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 here