John McGinn insists he’s determined to made amends for his Ukraine horror miss by driving Scotland to a major finals.
The Tartan Army hero admitted he’s still haunted by his big chance to grab a lifeline in the agonising World Cup play-off defeat at Hampden 11 days ago.
McGinn headed wide with the goal gaping with 25 minutes to go against a Ukraine side who looked like they’d emptied the tank.
The Aston Villa star has vowed to avenge the sitter – even if it takes him another four years.
McGinn is targeting three Nations League points against Ireland in Dublin today and said: “It still hurts me the same way it hurts everyone else in the country.
“It was a really disappointing night for me and for everyone but it’s one we are really keen to avenge.
“Even if it does take two years or four years, it’s one we will definitely do.
“I promised I wouldn’t watch it but I woke up the next morning and then had to watch it back.
“In that split second you don’t see the other side, you make a decision at the time and it was the wrong one.
“Looking back and analysing it, analysing it in detail, it’s easy to say I should have gone to the other side.
“But there will be a time when it comes again.
“The disappointing thing for me in my Scotland career is that it’s always the easier ones I seem to miss.
“I score the more challenging ones so I have to practice those moments and don’t be so keen to score.
“Don’t think about what’s happening next and focus on the moment.”
McGinn admitted the sliding doors moment will always haunt him – but it will also fuel his fire.
He said: “Reflect is probably the wrong word because I was hurting – and hurting badly.
“That’s part of learning and being a player, you make a decision in a split second.
“On this occasion it was the wrong one and it will probably live with me for a long, long time.
“But you can either dwell on it, keep looking at it and thinking what you could have changed?
“Or you can go out and try to score nineteen times like I did against Armenia trying to avenge it.
“It didn’t work on Wednesday but I will do the exact same thing on Saturday.
“My goal return for Scotland has been pretty good so I am keen to add to it, I’m sure a chance will come and I need to take it.”
McGinn revealed Scotland coach Steven Naismith helped drag him out of the disappointment and back to the job of leading the side.
He said: “The boys were saying 'why is it all the difficult ones you score?'
“I was like, cheers lads. It’s not as if I’ve not been thinking about it every day!
‘You can sit and dwell on it but you can also take it the other way. Naisy was brilliant with me. He was quick to remind me we might not have been in the play-off if it wasn’t for some of my contributions.
“When I put it into perspective, I wasn’t too bad and it’s about getting back onto the horse and trying to help the team again.”
McGinn is riled up for Ireland in Dublin and he’s targeting two more wins to put Scotland in the Nations League Group B1 box seat.
He said: “Ireland’s start, they’ll be disappointed. We know how important the games are to start with.
“We seem to deal with the groups better now. We’ve obviously not perfected the knockout stages of things but we are dealing with the qualification stages better. We know how to approach them better.
“Ireland’s situation sort of reminds us of where we were at maybe a few years ago.
“We know they’ll be hurting. We know they’ll be looking for a reaction, but we’ve always had our eye on nine points from these three games.
“We’ll be disappointed if it’s not but we are certainly more than capable of doing it that would set us up for an exciting September.
“We want to get comfortable with the top teams in Europe and promotion to the the top tier of the Nations League would allow us to do that and improve again.”
