McKenna keen to reward Clarke loyalty at World Cup

Scott McKenna hopes to reward Scotland coach Steve Clarke's loyalty and help the national team make history at this summer's World Cup.

Dinamo Zagreb defender McKenna, 29, has just won his first Croatian top-flight title and could finish the season as a national cup winner, too, with Zagreb facing Rijeka in the final.

The former Aberdeen, Nottingham Forest and Las Palmas player is one cap away from his 50th senior international appearance and is expected to be part of Clarke's squad as Scotland bid to progress from the first round for the first time.

"The biggest thing with the manager is consistency and trust," McKenna told BBC Scotland.

"When I came in, I was still at Aberdeen, still making a lot of mistakes. He stood by me. Pretty much every camp I've been fit, he's picked me and kept me in the squad.

"Every game I play, I try and do well for myself, the team but also for the manager just to try and repay him that little bit for everything he's done for me."

Clarke's future beyond the World Cup is uncertain, with his contract running out and nothing agreed over a possible new deal.

After final warm-ups at home to Curacao (30 May) and against Bolivia in New Jersey, Scotland will face Haiti (14 June), Morocco (19 June) and Brazil (24 June) in Group C, with the first two fixtures in Massachusetts and the latter in Florida.

"I hope that he continues as manager for everything that he's done for me but also for us as a squad and the loyalty he's shown to me," McKenna explained.

"Everyone will be looking at that first game as the one that we probably have the biggest chance to get three points.

"The preparations need to be spot on. We need to be absolutely firing going into that first game. To really get what we want out of the tournament, we need to try and take all three points and a positive performance from that.

"If I'm lucky enough to be on that plane and get some minutes then I'd be absolutely delighted"

McKenna sees similarities between Croatian and Scottish football and is glad to have added his name to a long list of Dinamo Zagreb title winners.

But he played down recent speculation suggesting the club had turned down £10m offers for his services.

"I'm not sure that's true," he said. "That's probably been lost in translation.

"I've had a very good first season and I signed a four-year contract here so I see absolutely no reason why I won't be here for the remainder of that.

"This is a team that's used to winning a lot of titles over the past 20 years so for some players it's been the norm. There's quite a few of us in there where it was the first time. To try and get a double in my first season here would be excellent."