| Scotland could reap some benefits from the lack of spending power for clubs at the moment. The need to develop their own players rather than buying in talent will allow Scottish talent to be encouraged to flourish and improve the quality of the national side. Under-21 boss Billy Stark will be one pe3rson happy to see more teams blood academy prospects. That would provide valuable top-flight experience for the type of player eligible for selection by Stark. Asked if the current situation was working in his favour, he said: "That seems to be the case because there's a bigger percentage I think playing first-team football at the moment. That may be one of the reasons for that. If we're benefiting then I'm quite happy." Stark has taken his under-21s to Vienna for Saturday's European Championship qualifier against Austria. Scotland currently top Group 10 having won a double-header against Albania and will be looking to maintain their 100% record at the Bundesstadion Sudstadt in Maria Enzersdorf. But their hopes suffered a major blow even before they left the country on Thursday when David Goodwillie was ruled out of the game. The in-form Dundee United striker, who had started the opening two group wins, fell ill on Wednesday but felt better on Thursday morning. However, Stark could not risk infecting the rest of his squad and travelled to Vienna without the forward. Stark said: "Preparations have been pretty good but just yesterday we had a faller, David Goodwillie. Unfortunately, he had a high temperature and a fever. He's feeling a wee bit better this morning but we couldn't risk it spreading through the rest of the party." Stark feels there is enough quality in his squad to cover for the loss of Goodwillie. He said: "We feel we've got a good standard of player right through the squad, so there's a wee bit of depth there, which is great. But it makes it more difficult to pick a team. They're coming from all different sets of circumstances. Some of them haven't played; some of them have played Saturday-midweek-Saturday, so you're trying to gauge all that." |
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