Mark McGhee: We’ve not got it in for Ross McCormack

MARK McGHEE last night shot down talk of a fall-out with axed Scotland striker Ross McCormack.

The Aston Villa star was overlooked for Gordon Strachan’s squad for Sunday’s opening World Cup qualifier in Malta.

Then when Celtic frontman Leigh Griffiths was forced to withdraw through injury, he was again snubbed in favour of on-loan Hearts man Tony Watt.

It’s led to speculation there may be more than meets the eye to McCormack’s exclusion, given his £12million summer move from Fulham and promising early form at Villa Park.

But Scotland assistant McGhee, who managed him at Motherwell, was quick to dismiss any conspiracy theories.

He said: “There is no bigger fan of Ross McCormack than me.

“From day one I have promoted Ross, right from when I first saw him at Motherwell.

“But what Gordon did in the summer was sit down and draw up a list of 45 or so players that we made sure we’d look at and scout.

“We have had Andy Watson, Andy Ritchie and me doing that.

“Gordon, of course, and others have been out at games watching all those players, so we’ve done our due diligence.

“Then when it comes to the squad he picks 24.

“Therefore, there are another 20 or so players at home somewhere wondering why they are not here too.

“Ross is one of them but I’d say that between now and the end of this campaign — which is ten games — we’ll probably turn over all 45 players.

“Next time around there will be players here that aren’t today.

“And there will also be players here today who aren’t here next time.

“So players will get an opportunity.

“What Gordon has done this time is pick a group of players, balanced it out for how he expects to play and looked at the opposition.

“It’s for this game. For the next game, we will look again.”