CALLUM Paterson can’t wait to renew hostilities with Manchester City superstar Raheem Sterling when Scotland face England at Wembley on Friday – four years on from their battle at Tynecastle.
The 22-year-old Hearts defender has usurped Alan Hutton as Gordon Strachan’s first-choice right-back. It emerged at the weekend that Hutton has opted to retire from the international game after Paterson started the World Cup qualifiers against Lithuania and Slovakia.
If he gets the nod to face England on Friday, Paterson is likely to be tasked with shackling £49 million Manchester City winger Sterling, a job of which he has some experience from Hearts’ 2012 Europa League tie with Liverpool.
“I’m excited to be part of that match – it’ll be the biggest game I’ve ever been involved in and a massive achievement,” Paterson said. “For me even to be in the squad is a big thing. Hopefully, I can get a game and see how Raheem has kicked on since we played Liverpool five years ago. Not too much, hopefully, because I played right-midfield that game and he gave me a torrid time.”
Hutton was not named in the squad to face England and Strachan, who has injury worries over Scott Brown for the trip to Wembley, revealed that the Aston Villa player asked to be excluded. The 31-year-old failed to regain his place from Paterson for last month’s double-header against Lithuania and Slovakia after pulling out of the previous two squads through injury.
Paterson, meanwhile, will head to Wembley on a high after notching his sixth goal of the season against St Johnstone on Saturday, rescuing a 2-2 draw after it appeared that Chris Kane’s strike had secured all three points for the Perth side.
It was a suitably grandstand finish to an entertaining contest which saw Prince Buaben and Danny Swanson exchange goals in the first period.
However, Paterson added: “To score five goals in the last two matches and get just two points is not great at all. At the start of the season, we were keeping a lot of clean sheets. We need to get back to that. We’ve made things difficult for ourselves in the last couple of games.”
St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright confirmed luckless Chris Millar has suffered another injury blow. The 33-year-old, who was plagued by a hamstring complaint last season, was forced to limp off with a recurrence after 26 minutes on Saturday, leaving the field immediately after midfielder Buaben had given Hearts a 1-0 lead.
Earlier this year, Millar joked about how he had been given the nickname “Billy Breakdown” by his Perth teammates, but this potential setback is no laughing matter.
Wright said: “It’s Chris’s hamstring, which is really disappointing. If he had come off earlier we would have had a fit player to deal with the first goal. Buaben has burst through the middle and Chris couldn’t keep up with him.
“That annoys me as a manager. But Chris has had a few injuries now and that’s another one, so obviously it’s a concern for us.”
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