U-21 Squad Announced

As Scotland prepares for vital World Cup qualifying matches against Holland and Iceland, we shouldn’t forget about the future either. The U-21 team begins qualification for the 2011 U-21 European Championships with a home-and-home with Albania. And, just to assure that the youth game has no audience whatsoever, the matches are the exact same dates as the senior ones … 28 March and 1 April. Makes no sense whatsoever to me (why not play on Sunday?), but alas, my powers over international scheduling are at the moment limited. Scotland U-21 hopes to achieve what they haven’t since 1996, and qualify as one of the eight European finalists. That was the year that we went all the way to the semis and lost to Spain (with Raul at striker). We start this campaign hopeful, and here are the boys that will try to bring us there:

Goalkeepers

Jamie Barclay – Falkirk on loan to Berwick Rangers
Scott Gallacher – Rangers
Alan Martin – Leeds United on loan to Barrow AFC

Defenders

Paul Caddis – Celtic on loan to Dundee United
Brian Easton – Hamilton Academical
Paul Hanlon – Hibernian
Jason Marr – Celtic
Chris Mitchell – Falkirk
Thomas Scobbie – Falkirk

Midfielders

Scott Arfield – Falkirk
Barry Bannan – Aston Villa
John Fleck – Rangers
Kevin McDonald – Burnley
Stephen McGinn – St. Mirren
Andrew Shinnie – Rangers on loan to Dundee
Lewis Stevenson – Hibernian

Forwards

David Goodwillie – Dundee United
Rory Loy – Rangers on loan to Dunfermline Athletic
Chris Maguire – Aberdeen
Jamie Murphy – Motherwell

(list shamefully and lazily copied, with great appreciation, from ScottishFA.co.uk