The Rangers loanee was called up to Scot Gemmill’s side as they faced Turkey and Kazakhstan in the tournament, Mayo expressed the privilege to be selected for the international squad and highlighted the opportunity it provides to perform against challenging sides.
Speaking exclusively on his return from international duty, he said: “It’s something that you take a lot of pride in to be selected in the first place, it’s a nice recognition of what you’re doing at club level for people to see what you’re doing. It’s a good group to be a part of and gives you a different type of football for the 10 days that you’re together.
“I think any player would feel the same that they want to go and prove themselves on the biggest stage against the best players. For us, in the stage of our career, it’s a great opportunity to go and do that. It will attract people in terms of who’s watching the game, there will be a lot of people watching and on a personal level I think everyone will want to go and test themselves on that stage – that’s something that you want to thrive off of.”
The youngster outlined his frustration with the squad’s recent results, but insisted that the next round of games provides an opportunity to rectify from this camp.
He continued: “Overall, it was quite disappointing for us all. I think the first game was especially frustrating, I think the performance was way below what we expect of ourselves and what people expect of us. The second game was frustrating to draw, I felt we should’ve won that game.
“Turkey are a top side, I believe that they have a lot of boys playing at a high level every week. The really disappointing thing for us was that we played them earlier on in the season away from home, we drew 1-1 but we came away from that game thinking that we could’ve easily have won that game. Whereas the game last week, it was pretty dominant from them.
“I think with the next games coming up, there’s an opportunity to put that to bed and move on. That’s the best mentality to have in football, to get over setbacks and disappointment, to then go and play Belgium and Denmark who are two of the better-placed teams in our group – they’ll both fancy themselves so it’s going to take a top performance from us to go and beat them and that’s got to be the motivation for us moving forward.”
The Light Blue, currently on loan at Partick Thistle for the season, emphasised the benefit of playing regular football at club level as he prepared to report for international duty.
He added: “The nature of the [international] campaign is that you are likely to play two very intense games in a short space of time, playing every week [at a domestic level] definitely prepares you for that. Going to play on the U21’s stage has some really top players and playing every week is going to give you the most confidence to play.
“I think they go hand in hand, and both can help each other. I think that you can take a lot of confidence from one to go and perform at the highest level in the other. It gives you a taste of playing different cultures, styles and formats – coming back from international to club level, it is always good to take your experiences from there and try and add to your game when you play at club level.”
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