Angus Gunn: I was ‘buzzing’ to get gloves on for Scotland’s opening qualifier

Angus Gunn was “buzzing” to get the gloves on for the first time this season to help Scotland to a goalless World Cup qualifying draw against Denmark on Friday night.

The 29-year-old goalkeeper moved to Nottingham Forest this summer after his contract at Norwich ended but Belgium stopper Matz Sels is the club’s number one and they recently signed John Victor from Brazilian side Botafogo, meaning Gunn was left out of their Europa League squad.

The former Southampton keeper’s last game before the trip to Copenhagen was a 3-1 friendly defeat for the Scots against Iceland on June 6, where he had to come off injured after just seven minutes – but he was in fine form in their opening 2026 World Cup qualifier against the Danes.

Ahead of the second game of the September doubleheader against Belarus in Hungary on Monday night, Gunn said: “Obviously, it’s been a while since I’ve last played so I was buzzing to be back on the pitch and to get the result we did and keep a clean sheet, I was delighted with that.

“I didn’t find it too difficult.

“Obviously, I’ve had the experiences before, which helps me a lot.

“It’s not ideal but to go out there, get a clean sheet and get back into the swing of it, I am proud of that and hopefully I can keep building on that with the national team and hopefully we can pick some points up on Monday.

“We are happy with the result (against Denmark). We knew it was always going be a very tough game.

“They’re a pot one team and it was always going to be difficult.

“We came off maybe a little bit to disappointed that we didn’t convert some of our chances, but they had a majority of the possession and we take the draw and we move on to the next game.

“The Denmark game definitely will give us confidence.

“We can’t rest on that. We’re away to Belarus on Monday and it can be a tough game behind closed doors, it’s going to be different to Friday.

“We’ve just got to stay professional and go and pick the three points up.”

As a UEFA punishment for the support shown by Belarus to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Scotland’s match against the Belarusians – who lost 5-1 to Greece away in their opener – will take place behind closed doors in Hungary.

Gunn said: “It’s not ideal as a player.

“Obviously as their home game, they would like to have the crowd behind them, so potentially it could be beneficial for us.

“The last time (closed doors) was during Covid, when everyone sort of got used to that.

“So we’re going to go there, hopefully pick up the three points and then move on to the next camp.

“There’s tough teams in this group. Greece are a strong team.

“They (Belarus) are going to try and bounce back on Monday so it could make it even more difficult for us.

“We’ve got to stay professional, stay humble and go and do the job.”