Aberdeen defender Andrew Considine is keeping his “fingers crossed” he can convince Steve Clarke he is worth a maiden Scotland call at the age of 32.
Despite being a Dons regular for 15 years the versatile player has never been invited to train with the national team.
But he has been tipped to win a place in Clarke’s squad ahead of this month’s Euro 2020 play-off with Israel.
Considine’s Pittodrie partner Scott McKenna has been ruled out with a torn hamstring while Hearts defender John Souttar’s season is also over after rupturing his Achilles.
Now Considine is hoping one last solid display against Hibernian on Saturday could finally end his long wait.
“If it came I would be over the moon,” he admitted. “I can only do as much as I can on the park and produce the performances.
“If Steve Clarke thinks they are worthy of playing at the highest level, then fantastic. But, fingers crossed, we will just have to wait and see.
“The bottom line is it is up to the Scotland manager whether he wants to call me up or not, but to be spoken about potentially getting a call-up is great for me.”
Meanwhile, Dons boss Derek McInnes admits there is no disguising Aberdeen’s awful home record.
Aberdeen have not registered a victory at Pittodrie since Boxing Day while their last four Ladbrokes Premiership fixtures in the Granite City have ended in defeat.
McInnes knows that is not the type of record that is going to see his side achieve this season’s aim of a third-place finish.
“It’s something we’re not pleased about,” he said. “Over the last few weeks the performances levels, even against Celtic, have been much better.
“But you can’t hide behind that stat. It’s not good enough and doesn’t get the job done for what we want to achieve this season.
“If we can maintain our recent away form and performances of late and transform that home record over the remaining games then hopefully that gives us a chance to finish the season strongly.
“We are still in charge of our own destiny. A lot of the times when you come into the post-split fixtures, we have been over the course of it before.
“There is a good chance that we will play Livingston, Hibs and Motherwell twice, the teams that are in and around us. Everybody will be seeing it as being in their own hands.
“If we can find the form that I feel we are capable of, if we can get that consistency of performance, consistency of results and that motivation to finish third then hopefully we can give ourselves a chance to finish third.
“It is going to be a tough game on Saturday. Jack has got a really good squad of players there. They carry a threat. Martin Boyle is such an important and key player for them. Chrisitian Doidge is scoring goals and they have got good midfield options.
“Whatever team comes up to play against us, they have good players who we will be coming up against.”
