George Hirst hoping to stay in Scotland squad after debut against Greece

George Hirst hopes the bitter-sweet Greece double-header proves to be the start of a long and fruitful Scotland career as he bids to cement himself in Steve Clarke’s squad.

The 26-year-old Ipswich striker made his debut as a substitute in last Thursday’s 1-0 victory in Greece in the first leg of the Nations League play-off before making his Hampden Park bow off the bench in Sunday’s dismal 3-0 defeat in the return leg.

Despite the deflating ending to his first international camp as the Scots dropped into League B, Hirst is determined to make sure he is involved in the summer friendlies against Iceland and Liechtenstein ahead of the 2026 World Cup qualification campaign.

“It’s been an incredible week for myself, I couldn’t have enjoyed it more, to be honest,” said Hirst, reflecting on his first involvement with Scotland.

“Bar the result (on Sunday), it’s been absolutely awesome to be a part of it and see how it works. To make my Scotland debut, it’s been absolutely massive.

“I’m just really delighted to be here and I hope I can do enough at my club going forward to cement myself in the squad.

“The lads have made me feel so welcome and feel so at home, so that’s been wicked. Obviously, it would have been nice to have topped it off with a result, but that wasn’t to be. We’ve got plenty of lessons to learn.”

The Scots will meet Greece again – along with Denmark and Belarus – in World Cup qualification later this year.

Hirst is hoping his side can give a better account of themselves when Greece return to Hampden in October.

“It’s definitely not the result we wanted and not the result we planned for,” he said.

“We’re going to get the chance to have revenge on them a little bit later in the year when they come back for the World Cup qualifiers, so that’s the better part.

“They’re going to be big games and they’re going to improve, we’re going to have to improve. They might look at it and go underestimating us next time, which if they do, then fair play to them. We’ll be ready for that.

“We didn’t get the result this time, but we’re fortunate enough that we’ve got the chance to go and rectify that in a few months.”