John McGinn has expressed that Scotland's disappointing performance at Euro 2024 will no doubt linger in his mind, much like previous disappointments in his football career.
The initial thrill of the Scots qualifying for back-to-back European Championships quickly faded in Germany, as Steve Clarke's team failed to advance from their group once again, ending with just one point from three games.
The Aston Villa captain is determined to turn things around, beginning with the Nations League opener against Poland at Hampden Park this Thursday, which will mark the first time Scotland have been in competitive action since Hungary inflicted a late sucker punch and ended their tournament on June 23.
“You definitely don’t park it,” the Scotland midfielder confessed as he addressed the media.
Read more:
-
Scotland defender a long term absentee after injury troubles worsen
-
Scotland star Lyndon Dykes completes Birmingham City transfer
“I still think about getting relegated with St Mirren. What I could have changed, what you could do better.
“These things never leave you. Everyone always says the highs in football make the lows worth it, but they are lying so it will always be in the back of your head, things you could have done differently, both together as a team and individually.
“So we can’t change that now, it’s about looking forward.
“But it was tough. I just wanted to get away. It was after a long season.
“I just wanted to try and refresh but you do dwell on it. You don’t really want to watch any other games.
“You think about what you could do better and what you could change. But it’s football.
“It happens with your club. It happens with the national team, and it’s just part of what you need to try and deal with, but you use it to try and motivate you to become better. And there is certainly room for that for us.”
(Image: PA)
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