Good Luck Lewis

Pars player can play his role in helping Scotland U21s qualify for 2021 Euro finals in Hungary and Slovenia

Good luck to Pars on loan player Lewis Mayo who is in the Scotland Under 21s for this week’s matches against Croatia at Tynecastle on Thursday and next Tuesday away to Greece.

Scotland are two matches away from their first European Under-21s Championship since 1996 as they go into their penultimate match of the group, against Croatia.

Scot Gemmill’s side currently lie one point behind Czech Republic with a game in hand, and are one point ahead of Croatia. Wins over Croatia and Greece would see the Scots top their group. They will go into the game with confidence having defeated Lithuania, Czech Republic and San Marino in the last month. The Czech Republic’s final match is against Greece on Friday.

Stevie Crawford is delighted for the defender who is on loan from Rangers. In the last round of game it was to Lewis’ gain that Ryan Porteous stepped up to the full squad and Feyenoord’s George Johnston was injured:-

“It is great that Lewis Mayo got in and played the last two games. By all accounts he was magnificent in the two games so he will go away there with a spring in his step because he was outstanding at the weekend playing in a position that wasn’t natural to him. That again shows the type of characters that we are fortunate to have at the club at the moment.”

The national Under 21 team, like their senior counterparts, have been doing rather well of late. A vital 2-0 win over the Czech Republic followed by a record-breaking 7-0 win over San Marino has given the Scots a great chance of qualifying for the 2021 Championships to be staged jointly between Hungary and Slovenia.

In other circumstances Lewis Mayo of Rangers and Kerr McInroy of Celtic might have found themselves on opposite sides in an Old Firm derby, but both 20-year-olds have committed to helping the East End Park cause by signing season-long loan deals with the Pars.  However, no sooner had they arrived in Dunfermline than they were whisked away in October to be part of Scot Gemmill’s squad that are trying to qualify for the next UEFA European Championships.

Both players have plenty of Scotland experience at under-age levels but this season has seen them in the Under 21 side for the first time.  

Before joining Dunfermline, Lewis got five minutes game time in August as a sub against Lithuania, but he played the full 90 minutes in both of the recent qualifiers against Czech Republic and San Marino and by all accounts was excellent in both games.

Local lad Kerr McInroy (pictured below) was a sub against the Czech Republic but wasn’t used, however he did manage to get his Under 21 debut when he came off the bench for the last 19 minutes against San Marino.

Having young players of their calibre in the squad and competing for places can only be good for Stevie Crawford’s team.

Lewis and Kerr became only the 11th and 12th players to represent Scotland Under 21s while registered to play with DAFC, and the match against San Marino was the first time that two Dunfermline players have been on the field at the same time in an Under 21 international.  

However, as the manager might just mention, Stevie Crawford and Barry Nicholson both played for Dunfermline when they played in a full international against Poland in 2001!

Scotland v Croatia
Thursday 12 November 2020, kick-off 3pm
Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh
Live on Scotland National Team YouTube

2021 U21s European Championships

The nine group winners and five best runners-up will be joined by hosts Hungary and Slovenia for a group stage of four groups of four from 24 to 31 March 2021. Both host nations will stage games.

The four group winners and four runners-up will then qualify for the final tournament which will be played as a straight knockout final eight, with quarter-finals and semi-finals in Hungary and Slovenia and the final in Ljubljana, from 31 May to 6 June 2021.

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