Scotland v Wales: Worst-ever team comment ‘a joke’

SCOTLAND captain Gary Caldwell has labelled criticism of the team from Welsh legends Ian Rush and Mickey Thomas as laughable but insists their comments will not provide any extra motivation for the home players in tonight’s World Cup qualifying match at Hampden.

The build-up to the Group A fixture has seen Caldwell and his team-mates described as the “worst Scotland team ever” by Thomas, while Wales’ all-time leading scorer Rush claimed there is not one Scottish player who will cause any trepidation in the visitors’ ranks this evening.

Scotland are bottom of the group with just two points from their first four games, a sequence of results which led to the dismissal of Craig Levein as manager in November, and already appear firmly out of contention to reach the 2014 World Cup Finals in Brazil.

But Caldwell, who will captain his country for the fifth time tonight, insists Scotland do have players who are capable of making both Rush and Thomas reconsider their views.

“It’s a bit of joke, to be honest,” said the Wigan Athletic defender. “Players read their comments in the papers and you just have a bit of a laugh about it and get on with it.

“Listen, I’ve been told three or four times that I’ve been part of the worst Scotland team! It doesn’t have any effect on us as players and it will definitely have no bearing whatsoever on the game at Hampden.

“The comments might help the fans, in terms of firing them up. But I don’t think our players read too much into them at all. If anyone does, then they shouldn’t really.

“If you look at the squad we have got this week, there is a lot of talent at the top end of the pitch. In squads gone by, we didn’t really have that. We maybe had James McFadden, but not much else.

“I play with Shaun Maloney at Wigan and he has been fantastic this season. He has learned about new positions and improved at Wigan. He can be a big threat for Scotland against anyone, from a wide position of playing just off the front.

“We also have Steven Fletcher up front. He has been a real handful in the Premier League with Sunderland this season. I played with him at Hibs a few years ago and he has improved a lot. He is probably the 
finished article now as a centre forward.

“We also have Chris Burke and Robert Snodgrass while George Boyd has come in with Gary Mackay-Steven, who is an unbelievable talent for a young lad. So were are really dangerous up front with players who can really hurt teams and, hopefully, that can happen against Wales.

“We can play more offensively than we did in the past, we can be a better team to watch and a team which is going to create more chances and score more goals.”