It has been well known that Scotland has been lacking a wealth of solid Goalkeeping options over the last few years, but the problems reached a head on Friday when second-choice goalkeeper Robby McCrorie suffered an injury in the warm-up before the match against Iceland. The woes continued when the first-choice keeper, Angus Gunn, was forced off in just the 7th minute, leaving the 3rd-choice goalkeeper Cieran Slicker to step in and make his international debut. However, it was not a debut to remember for Slicker as he struggled throughout the game, most notably, he was at serious fault for Iceland’s first goal just a minute after he came on when he gave the ball away too easily when playing out from the back which resulted in him being completely out of position. The Icelandic striker simply curled the ball around Slicker into the goal to give the visitors the advantage.
Slicker is not the answer to Scotland’s goalkeeper crisis. The 22-year-old should’ve never been in that position, having only made one 9-minute appearance this season and only recording a total of 6 professional appearances in his whole career. With Liam Kelly, Zander Clark and Craig Gordon being left out over injury concerns, who does this leave to fill the void in the squad for the upcoming game on Monday?
Steve Clark has chosen to call up two uncapped players in an attempt to plug the holes. The first and probably favourite to play on Monday is Scottish Cup winner and soon-to-be Celtic player Ross Doohan.
Doohan has primarily played as the Aberdeen backup this season, filling in for the injured Mitov on 18 occasions. He has been impressive in spells and has been solid when called upon by Aberdeen. His highlights include a penalty save in the last minute against Hearts to secure his team a point in a 0-0 draw, as well as an impressive performance in a 3-0 loss to Rangers, where he managed an impressive 8 saves. Doohan has agreed to join Celtic following the conclusion of his Aberdeen contract this season.
The second call-up has been that of 18-year-old Callan McKenna. Steve Clark has stated that the Scottish Under-21s goalkeeper has been training with the first team, making him an obvious option to fill in for the injured first-teamers. McKenna is currently a youth player for English Premier League side Bournemouth, but has yet to make any first-team appearances for them. He has only managed 9 appearances in his entire career, all of which came during a spell at Queen’s Park during the 2023/2024 season before he made the switch down south for a fee of approximately £300,000.
