Stevie May content despite missing German trip

Stevie May: In under-21 squad. Picture: SNS

The former St Johnstone striker will line up for Billy Stark’s side in a European Championship qualifier in Slovakia and against Luxembourg on Monday.

May has already made an impact at Hillsborough since his £800,000 move from Perth last month and netted his first goal for his new club at  Middlesbrough.

The 21-year-old is now concentrating on grabbing a couple of wins for his country against the Slovaks and Luxembourg that would propel Stark’s side up to second place and a very slim chance of reaching the play-offs.

May said: “It would be nice to bow out on a high. We know these two games are going to be tough, but we will treat them with respect. Of course, anyone would say, you’d rather be with the full national squad, but there are a lot of top international strikers in the full squad so I can’t be disappointed.

“Playing at the highest level possible is a personal goal for me. That’s what I went down there to do. If that comes with an international call-up down the line, then good.

“The boys at Sheffield Wednesday have all been great with me. It was important to get that goal, although, if it hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have changed my thought process much.”

And May has already noted a big difference between the English Championship and the Scottish Premiership – the playing surfaces. He said: “It is a high standard. The pitches are a big thing to do with it. The surfaces down there you can trust your touch much more with the flat grass which you don’t really get as much of in Scotland as you would like. If the pitches were at that standard you would see the standard in Scotland going up that little bit more.”