Scotland quartet to miss Boro cup fixture

Last updated : 03 August 2010 By Northern Echo

Scotland manager Craig Levein has called up Stephen McManus, Kevin Thomson, Barry Robson and Kris Boyd to his party for the match in Stockholm that will force the Boro quartet to miss their tricky Carling Cup tie at Chesterfield next Tuesday.

Strachan faces further disruption as winger Tarmo Kink is expected to be called up for Estonia's qualifier against the Faroe Islands, while goalkeeper Brad Jones is on standby for Australia's friendly in Slovenia.

Any attempt by Strachan to persuade his Scotland counterpart to release the players from their international commitments will be met with a firm no' from Levein who will use the game as a dress rehearsal before his side begin their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign against Lithuania on September 3.

Levein is sympathetic to Strachan's predicament as well as that of Cardiff City manager Dave Jones, who made a request that his goalkeeper, David Marshall, be excused so he can play in a cup tie against Burton.

The Bluebirds have been banned from operating in the transfer market, leaving Jones with only 15 senior players.

Nevertheless, Levein refused the plea and has attempted to make contact with his former Scotland teammate Strachan to give him a similar message.

The scheduling clash is a frustrating interruption for Strachan, but he is not thought to have made any formal request to withdraw his players from the Sweden trip and under competition rules clubs are unable to have Carling Cup ties re-scheduled because of international commitments.

Levein said: I have had requests for players to be allowed to be allowed to call off because there are games on the Tuesday night.

But the international date has been in the calendar for a long time, the Championship chose to schedule Carling Cup games for the Tuesday night.

I am asking for the players to be available for one game prior to the start of the Euros.

I have a degree of sympathy, of course, with managers who want to have their best players available.

But my allegiances lie only with Scotland and I've got to do what is right and I also have to do what I think is fair.

Gordon (Strachan) is very patriotic as well. They were over in Germany and I have tried to make contact but it hasn't been easy. But I am relaxed about it and I think that Gordon is as well. As an international manager you want to accommodate people, but in this situation it is impossible for me.

Source: Northern Echo

Source: Northern Echo