John McGinn snub explained as Aston Villa captain gives the perfect response

John McGinn provided the perfect response to being left out of Scotland’s line-up by scoring the winning goal against Croatia.

The Aston Villa captain was only named among the substitutes by Steve Clarke on his return to the national team after missing out on the last camp through injury. Clarke kept faith with 19-year-old Ben Doak instead.

Explaining his choice, Scotland boss Clarke said: "After what Ben's done in the last few games I felt it wasn't the time to take him out of the firing line. I looked at Ryan [Christie] and Ben's contribution the last time we played... and both Ben and Ryan did well for us out in Croatia, so that was the thinking behind that.

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"But I also felt I was strengthening the bench a bit with John to come in and he does what he does, coming off the bench and scoring the winner."

McGinn, who now has 72 caps for his country, guided Scotland to a memorable win over the 2018 World Cup finalists. The Croatia side included Real Madrid great Luka Modric, as well as Manchester City duo Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic.

Scotland remain bottom of their Nations League group but they will avoid finishing last with a victory away at Poland on Monday evening.