Motherwell star answers Scotland call-up question as he makes vow to do one thing after 'proud' Hampden moment

It’s extremely rare for a teenager to captain a side in a national cup semi-final - but Motherwell starlet Lennon Miller hopes there will be many more Hampden outings to come after reflecting on one of the “proudest moment” in his fledgling career.

With Scotland national team boss Steve Clarke and his assistant John Carver watching on from the stands at Hampden Park, the 18-year-old Fir Park sensation led out his team mates in the absence of injured skipper Paul McGinn and vice-captain Stephen O’Donnell against Rangers - something he will cherish forever.

Now regarded as one of the hottest prospect in Scottish football after making over 50 first-team appearances for Stuart Kettlewell’s side, many supporters had hoped to see the talented midfielder included in Clarke’s latest senior squad for upcoming Nations League games against Croatia and Poland later this month.

On this occasion, he was overlooked by Clarke but a maiden call-up doesn’t look to be far away. Looking back over Sunday’s 2-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final defeat to the Ibrox club, Miller declared: “Personally it was a proud moment to captain the team in a semi-final at Hampden, but overall I am disappointed to come away from the game and not be in the final. We go in at half-time 1-0, but then the early goal in the second half kind of kills us and deflates us.

“We were a wee bit rushed, we weren’t as controlled on the ball and we gave it back far too easily - obviously a team like Rangers are going to punish you for mistakes. I felt we could have created more chances if we had been more confident on the ball. We were disciplined off it and limited them to two or three big chances, but we would like to have created more.

“What’s that down to? It’s a big game, and maybe there were some nerves in there. Rangers are a good team and they press well. There is always going to be the challenge there. But I just felt we needed to have more belief in ourselves, and we didn’t really. Listen, this was a big achievement for us to get here in the first place so it’s not going to set us back in any way, and we look forward to Saturday.”

“We had over 8000 fans there and that was massive. We knew we were going to get backed, they backed us in their numbers, and we’re really proud of them for creating an atmosphere out there. I hope there are more Hampden appearances to come - that’s the plan. You want to play here as many times as you can, and this is the first of hopefully many more.

Eager to impress Clarke, who has been keeping a watchful eye over his progress in recent months, Miller is pleased to see his performances for the Steelmen aren’t going unnoticed. He added: “Yeah listen, he’ll watch most games I presume. I just need to keep my head down and focusing on the games ahead.”

Clarke hinted that Miller needs more time to develop at Motherwell before featuring in his Scotland squad after naming his 25-man squad on Monday. On Miller's rapid rise to stardom, he said: “He's another young one that everybody wants to hype and push. It's important to let young players grow. Let's just allow Lennon a little bit of time and space to grow up at Motherwell."