Scotland chances add up for Mathie

'Excitement'
Northern Ireland, Wales and Slovenia were Scotland's victims last month, a fine return after their campaign had begun in autumn with a 4-0 qualifying round loss to Slovakia. They came back from that with the comfortable defeats of Liechtenstein and Belarus. "When we did qualify, there was a lot of excitement as it was the first time we've done it at U17 level," Mathie told uefa.com. "We've done it at U16 and U18 level but in the new format it becomes more and more difficult for smaller nations to qualify. We usually get into the Elite round, but now we are at least eighth in Europe and that's a big jump for us."

Potential
Mathie has been involved in youth coaching for many years and was on the technical team when Scotland played in the old U16 and U18 final tournaments. And although this is Scotland's first U17 finals, their nation's run to finish U19 runners-up two years ago is proof of what can be achieved. "When we took this squad at 15, we saw their potential and the strength in the group as a team," Mathie said. "They work as a team and that's been their success. A few years ago, we had a U17 team. We thought it was their year but in the Elite round half of them had food poisoning. But they made the finals of the U19s and the [FIFA U-20] World Cup so it comes around."

Semi-final chances
Serbia, the Netherland and hosts Turkey are Scotland's Group A opponents in Antalya, and Mathie is quietly hopeful. "You come to the finals, and there's eight teams there and two from each group go through, so you stand a chance," he said. "Not just because we qualified on nine points. You need to have a bit of luck and we had luck in two of the games in Ireland and hopefully that luck will continue in May and we get out of the group. Our squad's really looking forward to it – it's going to be a wonderful experience, the facilities are great."

Family connection
Among the Scotland squad are John Fleck and Scott Durie, the nephew and son of former internationals Robert Fleck and Gordon Durie respectively, something that both pleases and slightly concerns Mathie. "It's amazing. When I first started in 1982, I had a number of players in younger age levels, now I'm taking their sons. Once it becomes their grandsons I'm taking, then it's time to step aside! But if there's football in the family, it tends to go through."