Lyall Cameron reckons both Scotland under-21s and Dundee can stun football this season as they relish the underdog role.
The Dens Park midfielder was a hero for the young Scots on Friday when he netted Scotland’s second goal in their stunning 2-0 win in Roeselare against Belgium.
His strike – his first for his country – added to a header from Leeds United defender Jeremiah Mullen to give Scot Gemmill’s side a sensational win against a Belgian side with a previous unblemished 100% record and who had yet to concede a goal.
It puts Scotland in second place in the table after four games, with the three best runners-up of the nine groups qualifying for the 2025 finals in Slovakia and the other six going into a play-off. They now face Hungary in Budapest on Tuesday.
Cameron has also been part of the Premiership’s surprise package Dundee, with Tony Docherty’s team shrugging off their recently promoted status to storm into the top six.
A 4-0 thrashing of in-form St Mirren last week saw them rise to fifth place, above the likes of Aberdeen and Hibs, and Cameron believes there are similarities between his club and country.
He said: “I was confident from the start of the campaign. I knew we were a good team going into this season.
“At Dundee, like with the under-21s, we have shown we are a hard team to beat and play against.
“I think we showed that against a really good St Mirren side last week.
“We are underdogs at Dundee as were with Scotland in Belgium and it’s also about us all working hard and getting results.
“It’s always the same with newly promoted teams because people underestimate you.
“But I knew myself we were good and I had a lot of confidence in my team-mates that we would do well.
“I hope we keep improving, keep doing well and hopefully we do finish in the top six.
“It’s been a decent start to the season at Dundee. Personally, I have had a few ups and downs because of a couple of injuries.
“I don’t think I have quite got going yet to be honest and I need to kick on.”
Cameron – who became the first player to win all three of Dundee’s players’ awards last season – young player of the year, players’ player of the year and player of the year – was impressed by the work rate of Scotland’s battling young side in Flanders.
He said: “It was a great shift from everyone.
“Perhaps we got lucky with the chances they missed but I think we created our own luck with the work we put in.
“We held on really well and showed so much strength. I felt we worked very hard for each other and that’s the type of squad we have.
“I think it’s right up there in my career to get my first goal for the under-21s.
“I think we showed in Spain we are a hard team to beat. It took them with their quality until the last five minutes or so to finally break us down.
“We played even better against Belgium when we counter-attacked and scored two goals.
“Hungary will be similar. They are a good side and we are away from home again so we need to recover before Tuesday and go again.”
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