MARK Russell hopes to impress Scotland Under-21s boss Scot Gemmill this season by having a successful campaign for Morton at Cappielow.

Gemmill’s Scots outfit were in action on Tuesday night as they began their European Championship 2019 qualifiers with a terrific 2-0 win over the Netherlands in Paisley.

Young Morton left-back Russell harbours ambitions to star for the national side — and he hopes an impressive season for Ton can book his place in Gemmill’s plans. 

He told the Tele: “I didn’t get a chance to watch the game against Holland, but I’m good pals with Stevie Mallan in the Scotland Under-21s squad.

“Would it be an ambition of mine to be playing in the Scotland set-up? I don’t see why not, to be honest.

“Obviously I play near enough every weekend with Morton, so it’s always been something I would really like to do. 

“But it’s not up to me whether I get into the squad or not, I have to always just try and do the best I can and maybe, hopefully, force my way in eventually.

“The Championship is a competitive level so I don’t see why not. I just hope I can keep up my performances for Morton and if the Scotland manager is ever there, I can try and impress him.

“I just need to keep working hard and if it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t — it’s just one of those things in football.”

Russell and his Ton team-mates had last weekend off but the 21-year-old insists he and the rest of the side can’t wait to be back in action against Dunfermline.

And he maintains they are ready to put things right from their disappointing result against Livingston in their most recent Championship outing.

He added: “I’m definitely glad to be back at it now, we had the weekend free and a couple of days off, but we’ll all be glad to be back again this weekend. We’re all looking forward to it.

“We’re back into the swing of things preparing for Saturday’s game. 

“We’ve been busy in training, as we always are, and we’re looking ahead to Saturday because we all know that it’s good to be back in action in the league.”