Glenn Middleton is determined to carry his Scotland Under-21s magic into the Premiership with St Johnstone.
The Perth star has showed what he is capable of in flashes at club level this season.
But for Scot Gemmill’s Under-21s, he has been a star turn.
With four goals in his last five appearances, Middleton is the main man for the young Scots, who face Belgium on Tuesday night at Tannadice.
Now he wants to make sure he shines just as brightly for St Johnstone.
“I’d be delighted to carry the Kazakhstan performance into club level,” he said.
#SCO21s | We're back in @UEFAUnder21 qualifying action at Tannadice tomorrow, as we take on Belgium. Kick-off is 7.05pm.
➡️ Get your tickets here: https://t.co/VIaczQg8f3#YoungTeam
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) November 15, 2021
“The goal on Friday was a bit of a relief for me, I’ve been working really hard on the training pitch in terms of finishing.
“So hopefully it all comes together in the next few weeks and I can keep the momentum going.
“I have to make an impact this season.
“I think I’m quite hard on myself and you have to be if you want to keep moving forward.
“I really do want to keep my head down, knuckle down, get good performances under my belt and keep pushing on.”
Middleton was on the mark as Scotland’s kids beat Kazakhstan on Friday night.
His aggression, pace and guile were too hot for the Kazakhs to handle.
Unbeaten Belgium will be an entirely different proposition.
But Middleton believes Scot Gemmill’s side are improving with every performance – and can boost their Euro 2023 qualification hopes with a good result.
“I think everyone has really come on this season,” he said.
“The game in Turkey was the platform, it was the first game everyone was together and from there we’ve done well.
“The Denmark game, there wasn’t much in it. It wasn’t a great game of course, but on Friday (against Kazakhstan) hopefully we took it to the next level and showed we can carry out a game plan.
‘Over to us’
“It’s going to be a tough game (against Belgium).
“They’re going to be favourites, but it’s over to us.
“Against Kazakhstan we carried the game plan out and on Tuesday it’ll be no different, we’ll do the same and be looking for a positive result.”
