Johnny Russell travelled through 12 time zones to play for Scotland – and went through heaven and hell to get his first goal for his country.
The Sporting KC star was thrilled to finally hit the net on his ninth cap, bringing a hurricane-strength sigh of relief to Alex McLeish and his staff in the Scotland dugout with a late clincher.
But while his round the world trip from Denver to New York to Moscow to Astana was worth it for that split second of euphoria, the 28-year-old admits it was bitter sweet on a night when a sub-standard win wasn’t enough to stop them getting booed off the park.
Russell said: “It was worth the travelling whatever happened but to top it off with a goal was brilliant. It’s taken longer than I’d have liked but I’m delighted to get off the mark.
“I should have had a hat-trick against Gibraltar a while back! To score for my country is one of the best moments of my career.
“I panicked a bit when I had to take it inside on my right foot. When I saw guys on the line I thought it was no time for trying to place it, I just got the laces through it!
“We got off to such a good start and wanted to kick on from there but they frustrated us and sat deep.
“We had a few chances we should have done better with. We didn’t perform anywhere near where we wanted to, especially after the other night. We wanted to put on a show.”
They were a long way short of that, a rumble of boos at the break and choruses of “F*** the SFA” – aimed more at the fat cat seats in the opposite stands than the players, to be fair - accompanying their struggles after it.
But Russell added: “They travel all over the place with us and have been amazing. They’ve got every right to voice their frustrations.
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“They were frustrated, we were frustrated. It’s a win but it should have been so much better.
“The next games are in a few months which will be the end of the season for everybody else but not me!
“We need to stay positive. We got off to a horrible start that we didn’t see coming and we weren’t at our greatest tonight.
“I knew there would be a lot of travelling but it’s worth it, especially getting a goal. I left at four in the morning on Monday, went Denver-New York-Russia- Kazakhstan, then here.
“And I fly back tomorrow morning. We’re at home next week so at least I don’t have another trip when I get back.
“It’s not been easy with all the time changes. I was up at four last night watching the UFC!
“I’ve managed to get into a routine before but it was more difficult this time.
“But if that’s one of the things I have to adapt to so be it.”
