John McGinn admits Scotland’s display at Euro 2024 will continue to gnaw away at him like all his football disappointments.
An excitement about the Scots qualifying for a second successive European Championships soon dissipated in Germany when Steve Clarke’s side failed to get out of their group, finishing with one point from three matches.
The Aston Villa midfielder took that failure to heart and looks to make amends, starting with the Nations League opener against Poland at Hampden Park on Thursday.
Speaking at the national stadium, the former St Mirren and Hibernian player recalled Euro 2024 and said: “You definitely don’t park it.
“I still think about getting relegated with St Mirren. What I could have changed, what you could do better.
“These things never leave you. Everyone always says the highs in football make the lows worth it, but they are lying so it will always be in the back of your head, things you could have done differently, both together as a team and individually.
“So we can’t change that now, it’s about looking forward.
“But it was tough. I just wanted to get away. It was after a long season.
“I just wanted to try and refresh but you do dwell on it. You don’t really want to watch any other games.
“You think about what you could do better and what you could change. But it’s football. It happens with your club. It happens with the national team, and it’s just part of what you need to try and deal with, but you use it to try and motivate you to become better. And there is certainly room for that for us.”
