Ben Doak hailed a ‘wizard’ as he sets up fellow Scotland star for brace

IT hasn’t been the best of times for the Scotland national team of late, with no wins since before the doomed Euro 2024 group stage.

But the performances of some young stars south of the border could offer encouragement for the future.

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The English Championship is home to a number of Scottish internationals, and three of them met in Norwich‘s 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough this afternoon.

It wasn’t a good day for Norwich’s Kenny McLean, who received a straight red card late on for a foul on Hayden Hackney.

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But Middlesbrough striker Tommy Conway, who has two caps for the national team so far, profited from the good work of another Scottish ace to hit his second goal of the game – before seeing a second-half penalty saved in what was a very eventful outing.

Conway had brought Boro level at 1-1 with a volley into the near post after 13 minutes.

And the 22-year-old struck again five minutes before half-time, after teammate Ben Doak produced an exceptional run from one end of the pitch to the other.

The Liverpool loanee picked up the ball just outside his own box and carried the ball under heavy pressure to deep within the Norwich half, playing the ball to Anfernee Dijksteel.

His pass found Conway just inside the area, and his finish kissed the post on the way in to give Boro a 2-1 advantage.

Michael Carrick‘s side then went 3-1 ahead and could have gone further clear when Conway had the chance to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot, but Canaries keeper George Long made the save and set his team up to score twice and level it up at 3-3.

The Scottish stars’ drama was complete when McLean got his marching orders in the 87th minute.

It was Doak who set the Tartan Army‘s tongues wagging though, with several fans taking to X, formerly Twitter, to laud his brilliant run.

One fan said: “Look at Doak go #beastmode.”

Another said: “After burners!”

A third posted: “Ben Doak is a wizard.”

A fourth saw the opportunity to take a more general view of the Scotland team.

They said: “This is the new young generation of Scottish players, we need to be rolling the dice and bringing those young talented players onto the pitch.

“We have nothing to lose by giving them more game time with senior squad members, we must look to build our ageing squad for 2025/2026 and beyond.

“It’s all about being a visionary, Steve Clarke is too stubborn to change his mindset from his regulars.”

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