{"id":600434,"date":"2026-05-23T21:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/600434\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:27:10","slug":"oli-mcburnie-hulls-wembley-hero-but-the-striker-scotland-can-do-without","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/600434\/","title":{"rendered":"Oli McBurnie: Hull&#8217;s Wembley hero &#8211; but the striker Scotland can do without?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There was already scrutiny over Steve Clarke&#8217;s decision to omit Oli McBurnie from Scotland&#8217;s World Cup squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After Saturday at Wembley, there might be much, much more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">McBurnie was Hull City&#8217;s match-winning, promotion-winning hero &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/eng_div_1\/7416502.stm\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their new Dean Windass,<\/a> in less spectacular but arguably far more dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 29-year-old Scot pounced on a mistake by Middlesbrough goalkeeper Sol Brynn in the fifth minute of stoppage time to score the only goal of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/live\/cn9p8yrdy9qt#Report\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Championship play-off final<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It sent the Tigers back to English football&#8217;s top flight after a 10-year absence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His Wembley winner came just four days after the 19-goal forward was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/cq5pq9vg3xgo\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">omitted from Clarke&#8217;s squad<\/a> for this summer&#8217;s global extravaganza in the USA, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">So while he may not be going to the World Cup with Scotland, McBurnie is going to the Premier League with Hull.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I am quite pleased he is not going to the World Cup because now he can rest, &#8221; Tigers boss Sergej Jakirovic told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He had a conversation with the head coach (Clarke) and it was explained to him what the situation was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He scores goals &#8211; but this [selection] is the job of an international coach and I respect that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After naming his squad, Clarke intimated the player maybe did not fit into the type of character he wanted in his squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;You got the sense McBurnie could have scored a hat-trick in every game in the last two months of the season and Clarke would have been unmoved,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/cq5pq9vg3xgo\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wrote BBC chief sports reporter Tom English.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Maybe he doesn&#8217;t fancy him as a footballer, maybe he doesn&#8217;t fancy him as a human being. Whatever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jakirovic, however, believes McBurnie is a positive influence in the Hull dressing room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He is a leader &#8211; he is different and has so much experience in the Championship and creates fear in opponents,&#8221; the Croatian said of his former Swansea and Sheffield United forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was already scrutiny over Steve Clarke&#8217;s decision to omit Oli McBurnie from Scotland&#8217;s World Cup squad. After&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-600434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}