The international break is nearly at an end, and Celtic man Anthony Ralston has enjoyed his time away with Scotland across their final two Nations League matches.
Steve Clarke’s side went into their last League A fixtures bottom of their group containing Portugal, Croatia and Poland, leaving the Tartan Army with work to do to avoid relegation to League B.
Anthony Ralston may not have featured much for Celtic this season, but he continues to be relied upon for his country amid Scotland’s problems in the right-back position.
Starting last Friday at Hampden, Ralston earned positive media ratings against Croatia as his nation saw off Croatia 1-0 courtesy of a late John McGinn strike.
Leading them into their last fixture of the campaign, let’s see how the Celtic defender got on in Warsaw on a night where victory was a must.
Anthony Ralston turns in another ‘solid’ Scotland display
Once again, Ralston held his own against a difficult opponent as Scotland earned a 2-1 victory over Poland amid Andy Robertson’s stoppage-time winner for the visitors.
Starting off, The Herald’s Ewan Paton gave the Celtic right-back a 7/10 rating, stating: “Survived a major let off after a slack touch allowed the hosts in, but the finish left them down as they missed the target from close-range under no pressure. Had a solid enough game, though.”
On a similar note, The Edinburgh Evening News paid tribute to his display, stating: “Anthony Ralston – 6/10. Got up and down the park all night. Tried to contribute in attacking and was sound in defence.”
The positivity continued via The Scotsman, who said: “Put under a lot of pressure down his right flank by the lively Jakub Kaminski but stood up to the task. Was keen to support Ben Doak in attack with overlapping and underlapping runs. By 76 minutes the Celtic man had emptied the tank, and was replaced by Nicky Devlin. 7.5.”
Ralston was given a 6/10 by The Daily Mail: “Anthony Ralston – 6. Strong and eager, if a little hesitant at times. His area of the pitch was where Scotland were most vulnerable.”
Rounding off, TNT Sports awarded Ralston a 6/10 on the night as he battled valiantly before being replaced by Nicky Devlin in the latter stages.
Anthony Ralston forms part of statement Scotland win
Despite his lack of minutes at club level, Ralston featured in every single one of Scotland’s Nations League matches, and they achieved a miraculous turnaround to avoid relegation to League B.
While they arguably deserved more points than they ended up on, the Tartan Army now have a playoff next spring to determine their fate and will fancy their chances of retaining their status at the top table.
Scotland proved they could mix it with the best on the continent, which Ralston formed a major part of as he looks to make his point to Brendan Rodgers.
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