Stuart McCall tips Kieran Tierney to smash Dalglish’s Scottish cap record

KIERAN TIERNEY is good enough to one day break Scotland’s appearance record.

That is the assertion of manager Gordon Strachan’s former assistant, Stuart McCall.

The Celtic full-back will win his seventh cap when he lines up against Slovakia in the vital World Cup qualifier at Hampden on Thursday night.

That’s 95 short of the current best tally of 102 appearances, amassed by Kenny Dalglish between 1971 and 1986.

As McCall, who won 40 caps as a tenacious midfielder, points out, though, Tierney has both time and considerable ability on his side.

“I watch Kieran now and I genuinely can’t envisage a time in the future when he will not be in the Scotland side,” he said.

“Ten years down the line, I can see him in there, directing all the others around him.

“He really is that good. You are talking about a kid, just turned 20, who is already making a huge contribution at international level, and playing in multiple positions to help us get the very best team out on the pitch.

“At Champions League level for Celtic, too, he has been nothing short of outstanding.

“And again in the domestic game, he has demonstrated both his versatility –playing in several different positions including left centre-back of a three – and his stamina by playing game after game.

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“I have been around football for a lot of years now, one way or another, and I can’t remember any young player making that sort of impact.

“You look at him and you have to think Kieran is one of these guys who comes along maybe once every 20 years or so.

“In terms of Scotland, then you would be thinking about the exceptional ones, the likes of Dalglish, Danny McGrain, Graeme Souness, Richard Gough and Willie Miller.”

The players McCall has named all have secured their places in Scotland’s Hall of Fame. Tierney, he is sure, will join them in time.

“As Brendan Rodgers and Gordon Strachan have both said, Kieran has the perfect attitude for the game,” McCall continued.

“Off the pitch, he come across as quite humble, a young boy who is keen to listen and learn as much as he can.

“On it, though, he is a fearless man. Someone with confidence in his own ability and in that of those around him.

“He has shown no signs of having had his head turned by the success he has enjoyed so far. He just seems to want to push himself to do more and more.”

McCall’s more immediate hope for Tierney is that he gets the chance to help end an unwanted record he himself is part of, namely being one of the last players to score in a Scotland win at the World Cup Finals.

That was all the way back at Italia 90, the Bradford boss netting early on at the Stadio Luigi Ferrari in Genoa to put the country ahead against Sweden.

Mo Johnston added another from the penalty spot to make it 2-0, and while Glenn Stromberg pulled one back with five minutes remaining, Andy Roxburgh’s side held on for the victory.

“It’s sad to think that is the last win we have had at the World Cup Finals,” said McCall.

“My kids still wind me up because it was the only goal I scored for Scotland.

“They say: ‘What were you doing in the other 39 matches you played, Dad?’.

“I don’t worry, though. I just tell them that having scored on the biggest stage of them all, I wasn’t bothered about getting on the scoresheet in friendlies and qualifiers!

“It wasn’t the best-looking goal you’ll see.

“A corner swung in (from Murdo MacLeod), a header on from big Dave MacPherson and from some four yards out – a range I was always deadly from – I slid in to poke it into the net.

“The feeling of being part of the win, though, was amazing.

“We had lost the opener to Costa Rica, so to pull ourselves back into things, even if only for a little while, was huge.

“I know that is what Gordon Strachan and Mark McGhee are working so hard for, to give today’s players the opportunity to taste that kind of occasion.

“We all – coaches, ex-players, fans, everyone in the country – took it hard watching not just England but also Wales and Northern Ireland enjoying themselves at the Euros last summer while we were sitting at home watching it on the television.

“With a bit of luck, this can be the campaign we make it through – and hopefully someone can take that record off me.”