Boyd wants Scotland return

(GSM) – The Rangers striker Kris Boyd is desperate to be on the plane to Lithuania when Scotland kick off their European Championship qualifying campaign.

New boss Craig Levein is expected to include the 22-goal marksman when he names his squad on Monday for next month’s friendly against the Czech Republic and on the day when Scotland’s fixture schedule for the road to 2012 was confirmed in Madrid, Boyd revealed his appetite has been whetted for a successful return to the national fold.

He said: “It’s up to Craig Levein if he picks me or not but hopefully I can go and represent my country and do well for my country. It’s a challenge I look forward to. I’m ready to go and play for Scotland again. I said a few weeks ago that I wanted to go back, I wanted to play, I wanted to be involved with international football.”

He continued, “It’s the highlight of everybody’s career and I feel as though I’m now ready to go back and give Scotland more than I did previously.”

He added: “I wasn’t playing before and I feel now I’ve established myself in the Rangers team. I’m scoring most weeks and I’m ready to hopefully take that on into international level. Yes, it’s a challenge. But it’s one I look forward to.”

The Scots begin the campaign with an away game against Lithuania on September 3, followed by matches against Liechtenstein (home), Czech Republic (away), Spain (home), Czech Republic (home), Lithuania (home), Liechtenstein (away) and Spain (away).

Boyd is satisfied with the schedule that has been thrashed out after the last campaign got off to a disastrous start with the Scots suffering defeat in their opener in the searing heat of Macedonia.

“We failed in Macedonia the last time, and I know we don’t need to go there this time, but hopefully in this campaign we can go closer than we did the last time.”