JOHN McGinn yesterday revealed that he is determined to equal the Scotland goalscoring record currently held jointly by Denis Law and Sir Kenny Dalglish as he stepped up preparations for the first Nations League play-off match against Greece.
McGinn moved above Ally McCoist in his country’s all-time scoring charts when he put the national team in front in their final League A match against Poland in Warsaw back in November.
The 73-times capped 30-year-old has now been on target on no fewer than 20 occasions during his international career – only Lawrie Reilly (22), Hughie Gallacher (24), Law and Dalglish (both 30) have netted more in a dark blue jersey.
The Aston Villa midfielder, who is set to start in the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens tomorrow evening, is only concerned with helping Scotland to come out on top in this double header and remain in the top flight of the Nations League.
However, the former St Mirren and Hibernian man admitted that adding to his personal haul of goals and moving alongside legends Law and Dalglish is a major ambition for him.
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“It definitely is a motivation to be amongst those names,” said McGinn after a training session at Lesser Hampden. “I like to wind Ally McCoist up a wee bit about it (edging ahead of him into fifth place in the Scotland goalscorers list) when I see him.
“Obviously, if I had to choose the team winning over me scoring, I still would. But I sort of have it in the back of my mind, it's something that I think is achievable. I think, ‘Ten more goals to match Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law’.
“It is something I never thought I would say. So, I've got it in the back of my mind. But first and foremost, I want to keep the team in League A. If I manage to nick a couple and creep up towards it, then even better.”
McGinn grew up listening to the stories which his father and grandfather would tell him about legendary Manchester United striker Law and was saddened when he learned the Aberdonian had passed away at the age of 84 back in January.
“I think his record speaks for itself. He had 30 goals for Scotland in 55 caps, which is an extraordinary achievement. The respect the football world showed him when he passed away showed how highly he was thought of and what a player he was.”
Scotland’s fifth top scorer is hopeful the national team will not have any difficulties finding the back of the net in the two games against Greece despite Lyndon Dykes currently being sidelined with injury.
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Steve Clarke has called up Che Adams of Torino, Tommy Conway of Middlesbrough, George Hirst of Ipswich Town, Kevin Nisbet of Aberdeen and James Wilson of Hearts and McGinn believes his manager has a wealth of options in the final third.
“As always, you need attacking options,” he said. “For a couple of years we were very, very limited due to a combination of players being injured and players being out of form. But Nissy is back scoring, big George is in for the first time and Tommy's doing really, really well. “So, we have different options now. We're not really as one-dimensional. He's got players like myself and Ryan [Christie] who can float in between wide players and in the centre just off the front. Big [Scott] McTominay, is certainly like an attacker for us. “We have got different ways we can approach both games. With the number of games we're playing individually at club level, we might need to freshen things up over the two games. I'm sure the manager's thought about that and thankfully now he's got more and more options.”
