Scotland have earned ‘respect’ of top nations – Porteous

Ryan Porteous hopes Scotland’s Euros opponents may show “more respect” to Steve Clarke’s side than they would have in years prior.

Back-to-back Euros qualifications, the most recent after a strong campaign that involved the scalp of Spain, leaves Scotland in higher international standing despite a recent winless run.

Watford defender Porteous, who has been named in the provisional squad for the tournament in Germany, says the national team should not be disregarded.

“I think we’ve shown in the last year-18 months we can compete against the top teams,” he said.

“I’d like to think some teams might show us a little bit more respect than they did a few years ago, but we won’t be worried about that. We’ll be solely focusing on ourselves.”

The 25-year-old has 10 international caps to his name, a tally he hopes to improve later this month.

“My next target would be to repay that faith the manager has put in my and that next step would be doing it at a major tournament,” he said.

“There will be no hard feelings with anyone in the squad, we’ll go there as a team.

“Everyone’s had their pats on the back in recent months, but I think now’s the time to put that to one side. We’ve got a job to do.”