Andy Robertson has Scotland usurper role planned as skipper hunts down King Kenny's record cap haul

Scotland hero Andy Robertson says he’s gunning for Sir Kenny Dalglish’s record cap haul.

The national skipper – who headed home a dream winner against Poland on Monday night – wants to become his country’s top all-time cap holder. In Warsaw, he moved into joint third on the SFA’s roll of honour alongside Darren Fletcher. Former goalkeeper Jim Leighton is second on the list on 91, with King Kenny at the summit on 102.

Robertson now has that number in his sights as he looks to overtake his Anfield mentor. The Liverpool full-back said: “I don’t think it’s any secret that my aim is to catch Kenny. I know there’s a long way to go and I need luck with injuries. I also know I need to still play at a good level where managers can pick me. But I’m very happy with where I am just now in terms of my body and playing a lot of football.

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“Being captain of my country is the biggest honour for me. Any time Scotland games come around I get so excited. I love coming up for the games, so I want to go as far as I can. I’m in the top three now and I want to keep going.

“Obviously I had a good patch where I took over quite a few people in a short space of time. Now I can try to catch Jim Leighton, who is another legend of the game. There are a lot more international games now so if I can stay fit, hopefully I can go all the way.”

Thanks to the 2-1 win over the Poles, Robertson should collect his 81st cap in a Nations League play-off tie in March. Steve Clarke’s side aim to stay in the A1 top tier of the tournament before embarking on a bid to reach the 2026 World Cup. Robertson is adamant they fear no one in next month’s draw as he claims they’ve learned lessons from Euro 2024 when they let themselves as well as the country down.

The 30-year-old said: “Qualifying for World Cups is so hard. The last qualifying campaign we had proved that. We were pretty perfect throughout, finished second in the group but only went through, so it’s tough. But we’ve now played against most of the big nations and we’re getting better and better.

“We know we have to stay at that level. When it comes to the World Cup campaign, I don’t think we’ll fear anyone. That’s where this group of boys are now.

“This Nations League group will help us for qualifying campaigns in the future. Over the six games we’ve gotten better.

“We should have beaten Poland at home, that one hurt the most. Portugal beat us late on and in Croatia we thought we’d equalised at the end (when Che Adams’ goal was chalked off).

“It’s about fine margins at this level but we’ve now given ourselves a chance to stay in this league. Hopefully we can stay in with the big boys because it would definitely give us a lot of belief going into World Cup qualifying.

“The Euros was disappointing. We were good against Switzerland but the other two games were disappointing, especially Germany.

“I’m glad we’ve ended the year on a high because it’s been a tough year. there’s no secret behind that. That’s a frustration but it’s something we have to move on from.

“If we get to another tournament, we have to learn from it – and if we do, we’ll be better. The way we looked after the ball against Poland, in a hostile environment, was encouraging as it’s a tough place to go.”