{"id":1148555,"date":"2026-08-14T18:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1148555\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T18:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T18:08:13","slug":"mckenna-really-proud-to-be-selected-for-scotland-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1148555\/","title":{"rendered":"McKenna \u2018really proud\u2019 to be selected for Scotland Seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 4782 3247\" alt=\"Tom McKenna sees his selection for Scotland Seniors as &#x2018;a wee personal achievement&#x2019;. Picture: Alan Hendry\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"PYPW04CMJXONKQIZ94RN.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.47\"\/>Tom McKenna sees his selection for Scotland Seniors as \u2018a wee personal achievement\u2019. Picture: Alan Hendry<\/p>\n<p>Caithness football coach Tom McKenna is looking forward to having the chance to play at international level \u2013 as part of Scotland\u2019s 50-and-over men\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n<p>He has been training regularly with the Scotland Seniors ahead of a Four Nations tournament taking place in Northern Ireland next month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a chance a few years ago and I just didn\u2019t have the confidence to follow it up,\u201d McKenna (56) explained. \u201cThis year I sent my CV and they invited me down for training and it has gone from there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m down in Glasgow every three weeks training with them. It\u2019s something I am really proud of. It\u2019s a wee personal achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McKenna, who hails from Cumbernauld, turned out for clubs such as Rochdale, Airdrie and Stenhousemuir during his playing career as well as having a spell in South Africa\u2019s premier league with AmaZulu. He was head of youth at Clyde before moving to Caithness.<\/p>\n<p>He was in charge of Highland League club Wick Academy for almost two-and-a-half years and has also managed Thurso in the North Caledonian League.<\/p>\n<p>McKenna has been manager of Castletown in the Caithness amateur league <a href=\"https:\/\/www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk\/sport\/mckenna-happy-to-use-his-experience-to-benefit-castletown-in-242536\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">since 2021<\/a> and led the team to a fourth-place finish in Division One this year.<\/p>\n<p>He is in his fourth year as head coach of Caithness Ladies, who are this season\u2019s Highlands and Islands League champions \u2013 with a 100 per cent record from nine games \u2013 and are well placed to reach the Highlands and Islands League Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>The 11-a-side Four Nations tournament will feature matches between Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales over the course of three days. It will be played in Newcastle, south of Belfast, starting on Friday, September 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to it,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cI\u2019m nervous as well but I\u2019ve been doing well in training and I\u2019ve not looked out of place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegarding fitness, I feel good. It gives me a personal goal as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really chuffed with myself. I\u2019ve worked really hard for it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do keep myself relatively fit anyway. I go to the gym four times a week, but this has given me another focus and I\u2019ve really intensified everything that I\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I get game time, all well and good. If I don\u2019t, I\u2019ll just utilise the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk\/response\/?popform=true&amp;Url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.johnogroat-journal.co.uk%2fsport%2fmckenna-really-proud-to-be-selected-for-scotland-seniors-442293%2f&amp;Title=McKenna+%e2%80%98really+proud%e2%80%99+to+be+selected+for+Scotland+Seniors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><b>here<\/b><\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom McKenna sees his selection for Scotland Seniors as \u2018a wee personal achievement\u2019. Picture: Alan Hendry Caithness football&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1148556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[23672,748,94,4884,712,16,15,5900],"class_list":["post-1148555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-all-sport","tag-britain","tag-football","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-update-me"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117095203859683433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1148556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}