McFadden determined not to be left behind

Aug 21 2007 by Lisa Gray, Liverpool Daily Post

THE last time James McFadden faced South Africa, he missed the flight home.

This time he is determined not to be left behind.

The Everton forward, 24, is hoping to force his way back into the Scotland set-up ahead of next month’s Euro 2008 qualifiers against Lithuania and France and regards tomorrow night’s friendly against South Africa as the ideal stage to demonstrate he still has plenty to offer the national cause.

A fractured metatarsal has deprived McFadden of international football since last October’s trip to the Ukraine, where the Scots suffered one of the few setbacks of an encouraging campaign so far.

Since then, Alex McLeish has replaced Walter Smith as the man to impress and McFadden is keenly aware that a better first impression than the one he offered as a Scotland debutant five years ago would be wise. As a fresh-faced teenager with Motherwell, McFadden made his international bow in a Reunification Cup match against South Africa during Scotland’s visit to Hong Kong back in May 2002.

But he grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons when he over-slept after a night on the town, to celebrate the end of the tour, and missed the scheduled flight home.

Thankfully for McFadden, Berti Vogts gave his ‘Cheeky Boy’ a second chance and the talented targetman has made another 30 appearances in the dark blue of Scotland since that infamous indiscretion.

“It was a blip and I’m thankful to Berti Vogts for keeping faith in me and putting me back in,” he said at Pittodrie yesterday, the venue for tomorrow’s game.

“I’m sure I would have got back in somewhere along the line but maybe it could have ended there. Thankfully it didn’t and I’ve had a good career with Scotland so far.

“It was my first game for Scotland and I think I got about 15 minutes and that’s about all I remember. I’ve changed a lot since then, I’ve obviously grown up and got older.”

Dundee United’s Barry Robson earned his first senior call-up when he was named in McLeish’s 22-man pool last week, following praise from none other than Thierry Henry after impressing in a pre-season friendly against Barcelona.

James Morrison is another player hoping to earn his first cap after being persuaded to switch allegiance from England to Scotland.

The West Brom midfielder joined the rest of his new international team-mates after clearance was finally granted by FIFA.

For McFadden, the visit of the South Africans also represents a fresh start.

“I just want to get a game out of it,” he said. “I need games. It’s come at a good time for me and hopefully, if selected, I can get some fitness from it.

“It will be my first game under the new manager and I need to impress him.

“As a team, we’ve got a couple of new boys coming in and I think there are going to be players tried in different positions so it will be good for other boys to come in and stake their claim as well.

“It’s another game for Scotland, it’s not a game I’m taking lightly, especially having to come in and try to prove myself. I’ll be working as hard as I usually do to try to get a win.”

As for whether McFadden expects to start, he said: “I don’t expect anything in football.

“Hopefully I can start the game but it’s not up to me. I’ve sat here and been asked that question loads of time but it’s up to the manager at the end of the day and I’ll go along with anything he says.”

McFadden watched from the sidelines as Scotland maintained their steady progress through the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign with matches against Georgia, Italy and the Faroe Islands and sees no reason why the ultimate aim of participating in next summer’s finals cannot be achieved.

“It’s frustrating if you see the team struggling and you want to be there to try to help, but I was pleased for the players who were coming in and the fact that they were winning games,” he said. “It was good to watch because we were getting the right results and that was the main thing.

“I think we’ve got a good chance. We’ve got some very hard games coming up, every game is hard and we just have to take each game as it comes.” If we win the next game, then we look at the game after that.

“We have to keep going and keep working as hard as we have been and hopefully we will have as good a chance as anyone.”