With the promotion of Jordan Rhodes to the senior squad, Billy Stark is looking for someone who can fill the gap in the goal scoring part of the Under 21 squad. Scotland are still hoping to qualify for the UEFA European Championships and many are looking to Johnny Russell to rise to the challenge. Rhodes earning his promotion - and a move from Huddersfield to Blackburn - on his ability to score goals - 40 for Huddersfield and scoring eight for the Under 21s last season. However, the Dundee United forward is ready to take over the mantle of main goal threat as the under-21s' campaign reaches its climax. He said: "There is a lot of expectation, especially dealing with the loss of somebody like Jordan. There are a lot of goals that need to be made up for. Hopefully myself and the rest of the boys can live up to that and hopefully show that we don't miss him too much." Luxembourg visit Paisley tonight before Scotland travel to Austria for their final qualifier on Monday. The last meeting with Luxembourg resulted in a comprehensive 5-1 win for tonight's home side last October. Russell said: "We went into that game expecting to win and being expected to win but you need to guard against complacency in games like this. If we just do the things that we do right, then we will definitely get a result." Scotland are three points behind group leaders Holland on 10 points and Stark believes maximum points from the last two games are needed to secure their place as one of the four best runners-up for the play-offs. He said: "We need six. You could argue maybe less than that but looking at the other groups, I think we need 16 points." First of all though, Stark simply wants their hopes to remain alive heading into the game with Austria. He said: "It's an incentive to provide the chance for the last game to be a cup final. We know we need to take that chance. The Thursday game is an opportunity to make that game a big game for us. We know if we don't succeed on Thursday, the chances are that we're not going to qualify. I've said it to them constantly - in every game there is no room for error in this competition. In every game you are under the cosh, you need to get something out of the game, you need to win games. That's the way they have gone into every game and they have handled it brilliantly. Hopefully they can produce the form they have shown."
Source: FOOTYMAD
