Scotland U21 boss hails Donovan, Miller and Wilson attitude

“They become your leadership group that drives standards, create that mentality, get that identity.

“You’ve seen that in the last camp when I was out at the A squad camp and I returned with James and Findlay [Curtis] and then Findlay goes back up again as a result of his performance.

“Lennon and Colby Donovan, I’ve had dialogue with both of them quite a bit over the last couple of days, just to outline what their pathway is.

“If they’re not going to be getting minutes for this camp with the A squad, it’s important they come in to my squad and it will be a mirror image in terms of structure, fundamentals. And they just come in and get an opportunity to get game time.”

Miller had hoped that last summer’s transfer from Motherwell to Udinese would cement his place in the senior squad, but the 20-year-old finds himself in the area of the pitch with most strength in depth.

“I had a particularly long conversation with Lennon,” Docherty revealed. “You’ve seen the example, the last camp there with Barney Stewart. He comes in, he scores three goals, he’s in a good place when he gets back, gets into West Brom’s first team, scores a couple of goals, they win a couple of games.

“I had a good conversation with Colby and he just wants to play. So it’s important that we’ve got the buy-in. It’s not us telling Colby, ‘you’re playing with the 21s’, it’s him in dialogue with us saying, ‘I want to do that, I want to play and I want to impress’.”

Meanwhile, St Mirren striker Eseosa Sule has been called up as Docherty prepares for a new European qualifying campaign after 16 of the 27 players from his first squad went beyond the age level.

Rangers youth forward Kyle Glasgow drops to the Scotland Under-19 squad for three European qualifying games.

The 16-year-old currently on loan to Alloa Athletic joins elder brother Euan Glasgow, who plays for Edinburgh City on loan from Hearts.