Motherwell pair have rise to senior stage detailed as scouts cast their eye and alternate route bears fruit
The Motherwell pair stand close to Scotland history.
They have enjoyed impressive yet contrasting rises to Motherwell first-team prominence - and now both stand on the cusp of international glory.
Both Lennon Miller and Ewan Wilson are in the Scotland U21s squad to face Belgium and Kazakhstan this month. Victory over the Belgians at Tynecastle in an U21s European Championship qualifier would guarantee a place in the play-offs for next summer's tournament. Another way to do that is avoid defeat in Edinburgh along with victory over Kazakhstan next Tuesday.
Two wins could clinch automatic qualification as one of three best-placed group runners-up, Scotland last reaching this tournament in 1996. Miller hit 50 games for the senior Motherwell side last weekend in a 2-1 Premiership win over Hibs, and his form has attracted plenty of admiring glances.
Still only 18, the midfielder is someone academy director David Clarkson knew had the ability to make the grade. Amid plenty of interest in his services, Miller has lapped up the prospect of the first-team football he’s had in ML1. Clarkson told the Motherwell Times: “You are always weary that players can come and go. Players are always at the top level and then come 15, 16, some of them drift away.
“Lennon’s never been like that. He’s always been the top, top player at every age group. He’s played up at the academy. He’s probably a role model for the players, he’s so down to earth and in the way he conducts himself. The way he reads the game and takes control of situations at a young age is incredible.
“You are not going to get that all the time, I wish we could, because it would be brilliant. You need to embrace these kind of situations with Lennon because from a young age you could see there was talent there. He’s been switched on enough to know the pathway is here. He could have gone to umpteen teams, every scout in Europe was watching him but he knows he is going to play first team. You forget he’s only turned 18 and he plays like he’s played for 10 years.”
Wilson’s rise meanwhile has been far from straightforward. After a solid loan at Albion Rovers, the left-back moved to Stirling Albion last season, where his temporary stint was cut short amid a lack of minutes. Low on confidence, he headed to the West of Scotland Football League with Beith Juniors, where he tasted silverware joy.
That provided a platform to fight for his Motherwell place and he has now made left-back his own in Stuart Kettlewell’s side. Clarkson - a product of the club’s academy as a player himself - says it shows the alternative routes to the senior stage if the application is there.
He added on Wilson: “Some boys develop quicker, some hit their peak earlier. Ewan is that one who’s went a different path. He’s been on loan, grew as a person and a player, potentially realised in terms of first-team environments how tough it can be. He’s taken an opportunity in pre-season, came back in peak shape and fitness, does well in catching the manager’s eye and puts himself in the frame of being a starter.
“It’s having that mindset for players as well that if things are thrown at you or you think it’s a challenge, you need to embrace that and push yourselves through they barriers. I think Ewan has been great and a great story of how his pathway was. There are different ways of pushing into a senior environment. If you give yourself the best opportunity, you will get the opportunity here at Motherwell.”