Need To Get A Good Start

Scotland's Under-19 Manager Billy Stark is preparing his squad for next week's Elite UEFA European Qualifying Group Stage. Scotland have been grouped with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovakia and, inevitably, England, for games to be played between 27 May and 1 June. The prize for the winners of the group, which will play their games in England, will be to join the winners of the other six groups and hosts Ukraine in the eight team European U19 Finals in Ukraine in July. Scotland reached this stage with seven out of a possible nine points thanks to a draw with Azerbaijan(1-1), and wins over thrashing of San Marino (8-0) and Hungary (1-0). Stark is keen to get a good start to the group.

He said: "Every team is always nervy going into the first tie of a mini-group. Getting points in that one puts you in a strong position to fight for qualification. I imagine if you offered most teams, possibly apart from a few of the big teams, a point in the first game they'd take it. In our group England are clearly the favourites. Some of their boys are playing in the English Premiership, the likes of Danny Welbeck at Manchester United and Nathan Delfouneso at Villa. In fact they're even going to miss a few boys from Everton because they're in the Cup Final Squad. But you're always going to draw one big gun in this mini-tournament style. With it being England it brings another dimension of interest with the old Scotland v England game that even the television want to cover so we can't complain. I've managed to get a tape of Slovakia to look over which is helpful but we've not seen anything of Bosnia. However they play England in the first game so we'll get to see that. The majority of my squad were in Hungary for the last round where we did very well. So its very much a team. The boys know each other and know what's expected of them and I'm confident they'll do well down there. We do have a few players involved in first team action on a regular basis. Leigh Griffiths has had an excellent season at Livingstone and Paul Hanlon has had a number of appearances for Hibs. But on the whole the boys are young and playing reserve football while on the fringes on a first team place."

Scotland v Slovakia
Wed 27th May
Bramall Lane, 7pm

Scotland v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Friday 29th May
Keepmoat Stadium, 7pm

England v Scotland
Monday 1st June
Bramall Lane, 7pm

SQUAD
Goalkeepers
Michael Andrews (Falkirk)
Mark Ridgers (Hearts)
Defenders
Callum Booth (Hibs)
Jonathan Brown (Hearts)
Paul Hanlon (Hibs)
Ross Perry (Rangers)
Daniel Wilson (Rangers)
Midfielders
Lee Currie (Hibs)
James Forrest (Celtic)
John Fleck (Rangers)
Jamie Ness (Rangers)
Bradden Inman (Newcastle United)
Stephen (Stirling Rangers)
David Wotherspoon (Hibs)
Forwards
Leigh Griffiths (Livingston)
Craig King (Leicester City)
Alex McDonald (Burnley)
Jonathon Russell (Dundee United)