Owls defender makes international debut
Sheffield Wednesday full-back Liam Palmer had a day he will never forget on Thursday, a day that will have been mixed with a wide range of emotions.
Following an impressive couple of months under Steve Bruce for Sheffield Wednesday, 27-year-old Palmer was selected for the Scotland international squad last week for the start of the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign.
The Tartan Army started their quest for qualification this afternoon in Astana where they faced Kazakhstan and Palmer would have been delighted to have been named in the starting 11 for his country for the first time at senior level. However, come the end of the 90 minutes there will be few if any from Scotland who will look back on this game with any fond memories as the home side ran out 3-0 winners, handing Scotland one of their worst defeats in recent times.
Alex McLeish's side would have been looking to build on a promising end to their Nations League campaign at the end of 2018, which saw them qualify for the final stages to be held this summer.
Owls striker Steven Fletcher was key to that success and not having him available for these qualifying games clearly hasn't helped. Fellow Wednesday star Barry Bannan withdrew from the squad having picked up an injury at the weekend and key players such as Liverpool left-back Andrew Robertson were also absent. Despite this, Scotland would have been expected to get a result against a nation ranked 67 places below them in the FIFA rankings and they will need to put in an impressive display when they face minnows San Marino on Sunday to save some face.