Kevin Nisbet delighted with ‘milestone’ first Scotland goal

Kevin Nisbet reached a career high point with his first Scotland goal in the 2-2 friendly draw with the Netherlands in Portugal on Wednesday night.

Boss Steve Clarke have opted to leave six players – David Marshall, Stephen O’Donnell, Nathan Patterson, Grant Hanley, John McGinn and Che Adams – behind in Spain, where they had been in a training camp in preparation for the upcoming European Championships, following John Fleck’s positive Covid-19 test.

But the Scots, with Celtic midfielder David Turnbull making his debut, started strongly with defender Jack Hendry firing in his first international goal after 11 minutes only for Memphis Depay to level five minutes later with a drive from inside the box.

Nisbet opened his international account on his second appearance soon after coming on in the second half when he converted an Andy Robertson cross and even Depay’s second equaliser with a minute remaining from a dubiously awarded free-kick could not dampen his joy.

The 24-year-old Hibernian striker said: “I am delighted. For a striker it is something you always need to try and get over as quickly as possible.

“Thankfully I got it tonight.

“Scoring for your country is the pinnacle of your career – and thankfully I have done it. Hopefully others will come.

“It has been a great season. There have been ups and downs on and off the park but this is another milestone ticked off for me.

“It’s just about me replicating that performance and keep scoring goals for Scotland.

“I am a very confident person. I have always said I will score goals wherever I go and I am doing that. Thankfully I scored and it puts me in the manager’s thoughts.

“It is a very strong group. As you can see, seven probable starters left out.

“To come out and put in a performance like that is great and shows you the strength in depth of the squad.

“We said before the game to get a good result and put a marker down for the start of the games and we have done that.”

Scotland travel to Luxembourg for a second challenge match on Sunday and the former Dunfermline player said: “There’s a lot of belief in the team. I think we can do very well in the tournament coming up.

“But the next one for us is Luxembourg. We need to put in a similar performance and try and get the win.”