ANTHONY RALSTON may be a bit-part player at Celtic due to the remarkable consistency of Alistair Johnston, but the right-back played a hero’s role for his country at Hampden last night.
The dependable No.2 put in another solid shift at international level as he contributed heavily to Scotland’s 1-0 UEFA Nations League win over Croatia to keep alive their qualification hopes.
John McGinn, who will line up for Aston Villa against Brendan Rodgers’ men in the final Champions League qualifier in the Midlands on January 29 next year, claimed the only goal of a tense confrontation with a deflected drive in the 86th minute.
NET GAIN…John McGinn turns away as his late matchwinner flies towards its target.
TAKE-OFF…John McGinn celebrates his points-clincher with Anthony Ralston in hot pursuit.
The strike gave the Scots their first win of Group A1 and sets them up for crunch Monday meeting in Warsaw against Poland, who were thrashed 5-1 by Portugal at the same time Steve Clarke’s men were getting business taken care of against 10-man opponents.
It was also the perfect pre-birthday gift for Ralston who celebrates turning 26 today.
There was a flashpoint incident just before the turnaround when the visitors had Petar Sucic dismissed for a second yellow card following wayward challenges on Billy Gilmour and John Souttar.
Clarke, whose side had gone 10 competitive matches without success, said: “It’s nice to have a win on the board.
“Really pleased with the players, the effort they’ve put in up until now. They deserve more points and it’s nice to get that win.
“I think we can be better with the ball, I think we can be more clinical when we get to the final third. Obviously, the sending-off changes the direction of the game, but we were due a little break.
“We’ve been building performances. If I’m being honest, I think this was probably one of our poorest performances out of the five games we’ve played so far.
“However, we got the little breaks that fell in our favour and we managed to turn that into a win.”
HIGH AND MIGHTY…Anthony Ralston gets a lift from Scots goal hero John McGinn.
The Scots now have an outside chance of finishing second, which would send them into the quarter-finals and pot one of next month’s World Cup qualifying draw, as well as ensuring they stay in the elite level of the Nations League.
As well as beating Poland, Scotland would need Portugal to win in Croatia with at least one of the victories by a margin of two goals or more.
Looking ahead to Warsaw, Clarke, speaking to Sky Sports, added: “We have to win. First job is to go there and win. If we do that then we’ll count up the goals and whatever afterwards.
“But let’s take it a step at a time. It’s been a hell of a long time since we’ve got a win. Now we’ve got to get another one on Monday night.”
