Stevie May insists he is not too dejected after missing out on a call-up to the senior squad despite his excellent start to the season with Sheffield Wednesday, as he prepares for his Scotland Under-21 farewell.
The former St Johnstone striker will line up for Billy Stark’s side in a European Championship qualifier in Slovakia tonight and against Luxembourg on Monday but will be too old for the next campaign.
May, who helped St Johnstone to win the Scottish Cup last season with two goals in their semi-final victory over Aberdeen, has already made an impact at Hillsborough after his £800,000 move from Perth last month and scored his first goal for his new club away to Middlesbrough.
He was tipped for a full Scotland call-up and Gordon Strachan admitted that he was tempted to pick the striker for the friendly against Nigeria at the end of last season.
But May, who turns 22 in November, is concentrating on earning victories against Slovakia and Luxembourg that would propel Stark’s side up to second place, though they would still retain only a very slim chance of reaching the play-offs.
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“It would be nice to bow out on a high,” May said. “We know these two games are going to be tough, but we will treat them with respect.
“Of course, anyone would say, if you had the preference, you would rather be with the full national squad, but I’m happy here and these games are qualifiers, which are nice to play in and they do matter as opposed to friendlies.
“There are pros and cons, but I’m not thinking too much about the ‘getting called up v not getting called up’ thing. There are a lot of top international strikers in the full squad so I can’t be disappointed.
“Playing at the highest level possible is a personal goal for me. That’s what I went down there to do. If that comes with an international call-up down the line then good.
“The boys at Sheffield Wednesday have all been great with me and welcoming as a club. In that way it’s been similar to St Johnstone only on a bigger scale.
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“It was important to get that goal early although if it hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have changed my thought process much.
“It’s a hard league to play in but I’m enjoying the task of that. I’m coping relatively well. It’s a huge club. Even at training you can tell that.”
And May has already noted one big difference between the English Championship and the Scottish Premiership — the playing surfaces.
“It is a high standard. The pitches are a big thing to do with it,” he said. “The surfaces down there you can trust your touch much more with the flat grass, which you don’t really get as much of in Scotland as you would like. If the pitches were at that standard you would see the standard in Scotland going up that little bit more.
“It’s probably easier said that done to get these kind of pitches. It’s not cheap to get pitches like that in and look after them to the standards they do down there. I don’t know exactly the stats for it, but it does help and they would tell you the same — if you are playing on a good pitch, you play better football.
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“Also, there is a physicality thing in the championship which is the biggest difference in terms of the size and strength of players, that’s probably the biggest difference I’ve noticed.”
Meanwhile, Stark has insisted that he will not treat tonight’s game in Senec as an exercise in blooding new talent.
It would require two wins and a minor miracle for Scotland to reach the play-offs, with only the four best runners-up across the ten qualifying groups earning the chance to play for a place in the 2015 finals. But instead of preparing his younger kids for the next campaign, the Scotland Under-21 boss will play his strongest team.
He said: “Changes aren’t uppermost in my mind. You could argue they are being used as development games, but that’s not to underplay that in any sense — we want to try and finish positively.
“We have the possibility of finishing second and that’s what we have got to strive for, so we’ll play our strongest team with the best chance of winning.
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“Slovakia will be all over us like a rash, that’s the way they play. They are so impressive in terms of their spirit and energy. They are so offensive — they get so many bodies in front of the ball and go all out to score and dominate the game, which is a great way to play and it’s been successful for them.”
Slovakia Under-21 (possible; 4-5-1): D Rusov — L Pauschek, B Ninaj, M Pinter, M Vrablec — R Lasik, P Hrosovsky, I Schranz, M Skvarka, M Chrien — A Zrel’ak
Scotland Under-21 (possible; 4-5-1): J Archer — R Jack, S Findlay, M Fraser, J McGhee — R Fraser, J McGinn, R Gauld, L Macleod, B King — S May.
Referee: A Zhabchenko (Ukr)
Kick-off: 7.30pm (8.30pm local time)