Sheffield Wednesday’s Liam Palmer earns first Scotland cap in 3-0 defeat to Kazakhstan

It will no doubt have been a match of mixed emotions for the Owls academy product as he started at right-back in a dismal showing from Scotland against their lower ranked opposition.

Despite having featured at left-back in recent matches for his club, Palmer got the nod on the right for the match at the Astana Arena as Scotland got off to a terrible start in their first of two qualifiers during the international break.

Kazakhstan’s Yuriy Pertsukh put the home side ahead on six minutes, before Yan Vorogovskiy doubled their lead moments later with just ten minutes on the clock.

Scotland were all over the place defensively for both goals but made it to half time with the score at 2-0 despite Kazakhstan pushing for a third.

Palmer, who has previously played for his country at youth level, lined up in defence alongside Graeme Shinnie, Scott McKenna and David Bates, as Sheffield United’s John Fleck was included on the bench.

At the start of the second period, it looked like there was no way back for the visitors and things only got worse when Kazakhstan added a third through Baktiyar Zaynutdinov of FC Rostov who headed home from Gafurzhan Suyumbayev’s cross.

With the damage done, Palmer and co. could do nothing to stop Kazakhstan from earning a fifth win in 38 home games.

Scotland will travel to San Marino for their next match on Sunday.