Malku Mackay: We must celebrate Scotland's '˜small victories'

He is the man charged with ushering in a bright new era for Scottish football. But in the interim, Scottish FA performance director Malky Mackay insists it is important that the country celebrate the 'small victories'.

Malky Mackay has been greatly encouraged by the progress of Scotlands age-group teams. Picture: SNS.

It felt like a crushing defeat at the time, but the former Watford, Cardiff City and Wigan manager was referring to the recent 2-2 World Cup qualifying draw with England at Hampden.Two moments of brilliance from the left foot of Leigh Griffiths had the country within seconds of recording one of their greatest victories before Harry Kane stuck a dagger into the euphoria that swept through the nation.

There have been other moments for Mackay to get excited about. The Under-20s’ defeat of Brazil on their way to claiming a third place finish at the Toulon tournament.

Then there was February’s Under-16s’ win over Croatia. With the youngsters benefiting from Performance School coaching, Mackay says that “for the first-time in my lifetime our boys were technically better than Croatia”.

With the Tartan Army having been starved of a major finals since the World Cup in France in 1998, pleas not to be overly critical of the game have understandably fallen on deaf ears in some quarters.

But Mackay, who is tasked with implementing Project Brave – a radical overhaul of the country’s youth set-up - says there are plenty of positive out there.

Asked whether Celtic striker Griffiths’ two stunning free-kicks against England earlier this month can inspire the next generation of kids, Mackay said: “We don’t celebrate small victories in football. You just get on with it and say, ‘oh well’. It’s part of our national trait.

“Celebrate small victories more and more. Little moments like that can enthuse youngsters.

“Our job is to make sure we push that as much as possible and make sure there are regular small victories.

“Something we must look at is Scottish football takes a hammering constantly, whether it’s from pundits, MSPs, media or someone looking for five minutes of fame.

“We’ve got to watch how much we hammer Scottish football into the gutter. Will it climb back out again?

“I look at the last couple of months and you look at the bad news in Britain and the tragedies and what that does is galvanises the British public.

“Sport galvanises Scotland, the Commonwealth Games galvanised the country, our cup final and semi-finals too, and especially the Scotland-England game.

“I would defy anyone – whether a Leigh Griffiths fan or not – if you’re a Scot, who didn’t jump off their feet when he scored that second goal.”

Mackay, who hosted the first in a regular series of Scottish FA coaching mentoring sessions at Oriam yesterday, added: “Do we talk it up enough? No, but I’m going to try and improve it the best I can.

“In terms of best practice I’m going to make sure myself and the rest of my staff know what it is. If we don’t and keep doing the same things hoping to get different results, then that’s the definition of madness.”

Amid the bureaucratic tangle of trying to convince clubs that streamlining the elite academy system will benefit our national sport, the youngsters have kept Mackay’s spirits up.

He was in France to witness Greg Taylor score the only goal to secure Scotland’s first victory over Brazil at any level.

“It’s nice for the 19 to-21 year olds who are reading every day in life that they are the broken generation, that everything is fine to under-17 then falls off a cliff,” said Mackay.

“It’s nice to see that our under-20s went there for the first time in 20 years and out of 12 teams, France and Brazil can’t get out of their group and we finish third.

“We beat the Czech Republic 3-0 in the third-place play-off. That’s a big plus for them.

“The fact that (Red Bull Leipzig forward) Oliver Burke decides to come back from his holiday early and embrace it by becoming captain of the team is fantastic.

“Our 16s won a tournament here a month or so into my tenure. It had Iceland, Hungary and Croatia, and for the first time in my lifetime our boys were technically better than Croatia.

“That’s the first generation to have come through the performance schools with the double touches. Technically we are getting there.

“The 17s got to the Euros in Croatia and conducted themselves admirably.

“And there’s the fact the 20s have gone and done that.”