Celtic right-back Anthony Ralston is currently away on international duty with Scotland as they continue to prepare for this summer’s European Championships.
Unlike many of his teammates such as Andy Robertson and John McGinn, the treble-winner is not overly assured of a place on the plane to Germany.
Ralston rarely gets significant minutes for Scotland but he did come on for the final 16 of their loss to the Netherlands on Friday evening.
4-0 to the Dutch was not a fair reflection of proceedings, with Lawrence Shankland’s one-on-one effort that hit the bar coming back to haunt Scotland. Had the Hearts forward netted, things could have panned out very differently.
Many have criticised Shankland for passing up his significant opportunity, but Ralston has backed the Scottish Premiership’s top scorer: “Lawrence is a top-quality striker”, he said (Football Scotland).
“He’ll be disappointed, I think it took a slight bobble. He finishes those all the time, but he did well and he should be proud of himself.”
Ralston is not the first Celtic man to be complimentary of Shankland. Manager Brendan Rodgers has notably praised the 28-year-old on several occasions.
He might not return to the Scotland starting eleven this evening against Northern Ireland but regardless, the national team need to return to form in it as of Ralston. He said: “We know as a squad what our standards are and when the goals go in it’s not to let that slip which we were disappointed with, but it’s important we bounce back against Northern Ireland.
“We demand off each other high standards but we’ll analyse the game and where we went wrong and put it right.”
Nathan Patterson got the nod at right-back for the Scots on Friday. Celtic man Ralston is the only other player of that position in the squad.
If Clarke rotates, he may earn his seventh senior cap. The 25-year-old will want the opportunity to stake a claim for a Euros place but it remains to be seen whether he will be handed such a chance.
