Scott McTominay's Scotland dream almost derailed by travel chaos as Alex McLeish shares 'should just have phoned ye' tale

Scott McTominay has been the shining light of Scotland's Euro 2024 qualifying campaign, but travel disruption almost scuppered our chances of landing him.

McTominay has fired seven goals as Steve Clarke's side booked their spot at a second successive Euros, with just a final qualifier at home against Norway to play on Sunday before thoughts can really turn to Germany next summer. A double against Spain got the nation dreaming after bagging a brace against Cyprus in the opening game. Further strikes against Cyprus away and Georgia at Hampden and in Tbilisi kept the red hot streak going.

Alex McLeish was manager when McTominay was set to decide where his international allegiance lay. Born in England, the Three Lions were keen to have him as an option, so McLeish thought he better make the trip down to Manchester to try and convince him to pull on the dark blue, qualifying as he does through his Scots-born father - especially after Jose Mourinho publicly telling the world that he was set to make the trip.

But McLeish revealed he almost turned back due to travel chaos. And when he finally got face-to-face with McTominay, it turned out that barely any persuasion was required.

"I went to see Scott," McLeish told BBC Scotland. "Jose Mourinho had publicly invited me down and said 'Alex McLeish is coming to watch McTominay.' I'd heard that England were hovering about as well.

"He was born down there, although his dad is Scottish. So I made that journey but got flung off the train at Newcastle - they said it wasn't going any further because the snow was too much. So I ended up getting a train down to York, but when I got that I saw there was another one going back to Houston on the other platform and I thought should I go