Roster for Scotland v Finland U-21

The eyes of the Tartan Army may be fixed on Hampden for next Wednesday’s senior friendly with Croatia, but some attention should also be paid to the U-21 team, who are in arguably a more important match on the same day in Aberdeen, taking on Finland for survival in group 6 of the 2009 UEFA U-21 Championships qualifying. Scotland sits on 7 points from 4 matches, after a loss to Finland, a draw with Denmark, and wins over Lithuania and Slovenia. Finland and Denmark are in danger of running away with the group, and Scotland really needs a result here to stay competitive in the group. This will be the first U-21 match without Steven Fletcher, who has been promoted to the senior side. He’s scored three of Scotland’s nine goals so far, so he will be missed, and it remains to be seen whether captain Steven Naismith can step up, along with young phenom Ross McCormack, and get the goals in Fletcher’s absence.

In a lot of ways, this is how I dream of the senior side looking someday. 22 players from 14 different teams, 13 of which are inside Scotland. It’s a great slice of the young talent in Scotland. Good luck, lads.

GOALKEEPERS
• Jamie MacDonald (Hearts), Euan McLean (Dundee Utd), Chris Smith (St Mirren)

DEFENDERS
• Andrew Considine (Aberdeen), Scott Cuthbert (Celtic), Garry Kenneth (Dundee Utd), Kevin McCann (Hibernian), Mark Reynolds (Motherwell), Tam Scobbie (Falkirk), Lee Wallace (Hearts)

MIDFIELDERS
• Scott Arfield (Falkirk), Ryan Conroy (Celtic), Jamie Hamill (Kilmarnock), James McArthur (Hamilton), Kevin McDonald (Dundee), Charlie Mulgrew (Wolves), Lewis Stevenson (Hibernian)

FORWARDS
• Ross Campbell (Hibernian), Graham Dorrans (Livingston), Calum Elliot (Hearts), Ross McCormack (Motherwell), Steven Naismith (Rangers)