John McGinn backed to climb Scotland’s all-time scoring charts before Spain test

Steve Clarke has backed John McGinn to become just the fifth player in history to score 20 times for Scotland after the Aston Villa midfielder took his tally to 16 during their 3-0 win against Cyprus on Saturday.

Only Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish, Hughie Gallacher and Lawrie Reilly have reached the 20-goal mark for Scotland. At 28 and as a regular starter in an advanced midfield role under Clarke, McGinn looks likely to join the exclusive club. McGinn is now seventh in Scotland’s all-time scoring chart.

“Yeah, it’s realistic,” Clarke said of McGinn’s notching 20 goals. “It’s realistic to think about catching the next one. Kenny Miller is the next one he catches and I was saying to Ally McCoist when I did the television: ‘He’s coming for you too!’ So it’s good, his contribution since I became head coach has been really good for the country. I think John enjoys the role we give him within the team. He enjoys being one of the talismans and leaders so it’s great for everybody.

“All the boys in their own way have enthusiasm. John is probably a little bit more of a character than some of them, maybe not quite as quiet as some of them. But it is good to have leaders. John is a leader, Callum McGregor is a leader, Grant Hanley captains his club, Andy Robertson is the captain here. So we have a lot of good leaders in the squad and John is certainly influential within that group of players. He is influential with the whole group of players.”

McGinn publicly stated Scotland need to improve despite an apparently comfortable win against Cyprus. Two late Scott McTominay goals changed the appearance of a game in which Scotland toiled for long spells. Clarke had taken the unusual approach of criticising his team at half-time. “I said that