John McGinn credits ‘cheeky’ 8-year-old for Scotland goal rush

Midfielder named William Hill Scottish football writers’ international player of the year

John McGinn reflects on his William Hill Scottish Football Writers’ International Player of the Year award

It is hardly hold-the-front-page stuff that John McGinn suggests the SFA may have contributed to his transformation into a goal machine on the international stage. Yet the circumstances surrounding the Aston Villa midfielder rattling in seven goals in his past seven Scotland outings following 15 straight blanks aren’t as expected.

The 25-year-old cites the brashness of an eight-year-old as potentially providing him with the impetus to start finding the net for his country; a contribution that has now earned him the William Hill Scottish football writers’ international player of the year award.

“There was an interview with a boy called Shea McNeill – he was like a mini Ant & Dec rolled into one – on the SFA media feeds and before the Russia game [in September last year] he asked me why I’d never scored for Scotland,” said McGinn, the youngster the son of SFA employee Paul McNeill.

“He’s a cheeky wee chap who definitely has a future in TV. He interviewed me and his dad has mentioned it on Twitter a few times and claimed the credit for the goals that followed. Maybe he’s right and I wanted to prove him wrong… I’d been in good form for Aston Villa and it was something that had been bugging me for a long time. I remember the friendly against Holland at Pittodrie and a couple of other games I’d had near misses. So while the Russia result [with a 2-1 defeat at Hampden] wasn’t what we wanted it was good to break my scoring duck and another few came after that which was brilliant.”

The goal flurry – a hat-trick against San Marino last October, a strike in the win away to Cyprus and a double in the victory at home to Kazakhstan the following month – coincided with Steve Clarke deploying him in a more advanced role, almost as a second, deep-lying, forward.

“During the English Championship season [in 2018-19], if games weren’t going to plan then Dean Smith would tell me to go into a more advanced position so I wasn’t alien to it when Steve Clarke played me there. I was alien to it when, with Villa, it was shouted from the side at Swansea ‘go up and play there’, and I didn’t know what to think, but it’s a position that suits me a bit more.

“In my early games for Scotland, while I felt I did OK in games, I was getting caught on the ball because you don’t get that time in international football. But the manager has used my attributes higher up the pitch to complement Naisy [Steven Naismith] at the time, who everyone knows likes to drop deep and get involved in the play.

“It just sort of clicked and the whole team sort of clicked in the last few games which is the frustrating thing as we were building a bit of momentum after such a tough period. Hopefully we can click the same when we return and if the manager selects me to play in that position then I’ll be a lot more used to it now.”

McGinn has packed in a lifetime’s worth of experiences into a Premership season that will resume for the second-bottom Midlands club a week on Wednesday following the three-month suspension as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most random of all surely came in February when McGinn interviewed Villa-fanatic Prince William at the launch of the royal’s English FA-backed mental health campaign Heads Together, Heads Up.

“I think they asked for Jack Grealish but I don’t think he could make it, so I was runner-up,” the Glaswegian said. “It was a surreal experience. I felt like I was in the Italian Job getting waltzed into the interview room, but he was very humble and down to earth and he must be playing Football Manager because he knew everything about Villa – everything.

“It was in a funky cafe in London. It was like a workshop set up in a pizza place. Big [Scott] McTominay was there. He was playing table tennis with Akinfenwa and representatives from another few clubs, like Troy Deeney and Andros Townsend.

“It’s the most nervous I’ve been. I don’t get nervous playing football. I’ve never really been nervous, but when you are out your comfort zone, that was my first ever interview, so I did mention at the start that I’ll retire at the top…”

Not as confident as young Shea O’Neill then, it was put to McGinn. “I don’t think Prince William would let him interview him.”

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