The Scotland Epistles Football Magazine

First posted on Facebook August 8th, 2016

Each week I hope to update you all on how Scottish players are doing in the English Championship, which is becoming increasingly the most likely place for a Young Scot to make his mark. There are of course, players that play in the Premiership up here and down South but generally they are well known and more importantly, well reported. To begin with, this is a list of the current Scots in each team but there may well be others that I don’t know of or at Youth Level. If you know of any I have left out let me know. Thank you.

Aston Villa; Perhaps surprisingly, Alan Hutton has clung on to his place at Villa and has been joined in the last few days by Ross McCormack who moved for £12m last week from Fulham.
Barnsley. Things aren’t too bright down Oakwell way for Scots with no players currently, mind you no Scot has been capped with them since John Kelly in 1948.
Birmingham City; Paul Caddis and Andrew Shinnie are still regulars down at St. Andrew’s.

Blackburn in previous seasons had of course Jordan Rhodes and Grant Hanley among their number but now both have moved on to Middlesbrough and Newcastle respectively. Gordon Greer has moved from Brighton to Ewood Park in the summer and is joined in defence at right back by Stephen Hendrie who is on loan from West Ham. Stephen joined the Hammers from Hamilton in July 2015 and is still make his first team League debut. Craig Conway has been with Blackburn since 2014 but is unlikely to make a return to Scotland duty.
Brighton & Hove Albion – Winger Jamie Murphy was called into the Scotland squad for the friendlies against the Czech Republic and Denmark but was not played. Jack Harper was one of the big hopes for Scottish football, having been signed by Real Madrid but he moved to Brighton last season and he hopes to break into the first team this year. Best of luck Jack.

Brentford; former Ranger Lewis MacLeod has not had the best start to his Brentford career due to being missing most of the last season with injury, however Lewis played in their opening game on Saturday.

Bristol City; City don’t have any Scottish players but among their coaching staff ais former Livi player Jamie McAllister.
Burton Albion; Born in Edinburgh, goalkeeper Joe McLaughlin started his career in Non-League football before moving to Bradford City whom he made 125 appearances before his move to Albion in 2014 where he has played in 91 league games. Central Defender Kyle McFadzean is the brother of Callum who is currently with Kilmarnock. Callum had recently turned out for the Scotland Under-21 side after playing for England at Youth Level. His brother has represented England at ‘C’ level but whether he will pledge himself to Scotland if WGS comes a calling is yet to be seen.
Cardiff City have had a few Scots in the last few years and club Captain is goalkeeper David Marshall. The other Scot is Matty Kennedy who although only 21 has played with a few clubs already after starting out at Kilmarnock, he has also represented Scotland at all Youth Levels.
Derby County had a big Scottish contingent over the last few seasons and the two Craig’s Forsyth and Bryson are still there along with Chris Martin and Johnny Russell.
Fulham have obviously have just lost their Ross McCormack to Aston Villa but former Scotland Under-21 Tom Cairney is still there. Over the summer Kevin Macdonald joined them from Wolves signing a three year deal. Kevin has been called up for a couple of squads by Gordon Strachan but has yet to make his Scotland debut. Former Aberdeen player Jack Grimmer has been at Craven Cottage since 2012 but has yet to make a full impact and has spent some seasons out on loan.

Huddersfield Town have Will Boyle on their books but he is on a season loan to Kilmarnock.
At Ipswich, there is only Christophe Berra; Ryan Fraser who did so well last season on loan from Bournemouth has returned to his parent club. It will be interesting to see if he features this season with the departure of Matt Ritchie to Newcastle.
Leeds United have of course a distinguished record of Scots in their sides. Defender Liam Cooper was given a call up for the Denmark game and here’s hoping he will progress over the next season. Former Motherwell player Lee Erwin is currently out on a season loan to Oldham. Leeds also have in their youth ranks, the Mackay twins Paul and Jack who are eligible for Scotland.
(Part 2 coming soon).