The Ryan Porteous secret weapon that inspired Cyprus win as Ally McCoist heaps praise on Scotland's birthday boy

Ryan Porteous has earned praise from former Scotland striker Ally McCoist - who pointed out one thing in particular that pleased him.

The Watford defender put in a solid display for Steve Clarke's side in the comfortable 3-0 win over Cyprus at Hampden earlier on Saturday. Porteous, who celebrated his birthday on the same day as his latest cap, played in a back three with Norwich City defender Grant Hanley and Arsenal's Kieran Tierney. The 24-year-old will be hoping he has done enough to earn a starting berth for the arrival of Spain to Mount Florida on Tuesday evening.

There were a number of positive aspects to Porteous' game but McCoist believes his distribution and the speed of his passing in particular was to be admired. Porteous, who won just his second cap today, started the game well and won a couple of early headers but his use of the ball impressed. McCoist said of the former Hibernian man: "It was, he was very solid.

"He had one dodgy moment where he picked up a yellow card, but five minutes later he did the right thing where he could have fouled and possibly picked up a second yellow but he stood his ground.

"He can absolutely be delighted with his performance. Defensively he’ll have a lot more difficult games, of that’s there’s no doubt. What I was impressed with: he doesn’t half fire it into the inside channel. He was testing Ryan Christie, he was testing Stuart Armstrong. He put good passes in there. I thought his use of the ball was very good."

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