IT remains early days but the Scottish national team could, according to Charlie Mulgrew, potentially be on the verge of a new dawn.

The Blackburn Rovers centre-back met up with the Scotland squad earlier this week ahead of the team’s upcoming double-header against Belgium and Albania and while few of the current set-up are keen to make any grand predictions ahead of the qualifying campaign for Euro 2020, Mulgrew is optimistic about the squad that heads into the first match of the UEFA Nations League against Albania on Monday.

“There have been a lot of changes in the squad compared to the last campaign and it is a new era,” he said.

“These are young players that need time and patience, but hopefully the future is bright for Scotland.

“At the end of the day we need to qualify for a major tournament, it’s well overdue.”

First up though, is Friday’s friendly against Belgium at Hampden Park and with Roberto Martinez’s side finishing third at this summer’s World Cup, Mulgrew knows it will be no easy task to stop the likes of Eden Hazard and Romelo Lukaku.

“It’s important we have a good game plan and do what we do best," he said.

“But we need to have one eye on what they do and try to stop them as a team.

“They are good players and you want to play against them so we're looking forward to it.”

It is Monday’s match against Albania that really matters though and with Mulgrew one of the more experienced campaigners of the squad, he is hopeful he can help some of the rookies who are new to international football.

“We’ve got a good bunch of boys here, as we usually have with the Scotland squad,” the former Celtic player said.

“You’d need to ask the younger guys how much they lean on me, but I hopefully can lead by example with the way that I train and play. If I can help anyone along the way on the pitch or off the pitch then hopefully I can do that.

“There are a few experienced boys here and there’s a lot of good players in the squad.”

Mulgrew admits to having heard good things about a number of the young players who have recently broken into the international ranks and he has been particularly impressed by Scott McKenna of Aberdeen, with Mulgrew believing the 21-year-old has the potential to make the move down south sometime in the future.

“McKenna is obviously a top player who has done very well in his Scotland games so far," he said.

“He definitely could (move to the EPL). I’ve not seen a lot of him at Aberdeen but from my experience of playing and training with him for Scotland, you can see he has got a lot of the attributes.

“He’s a level-headed boy who keeps his feet on the ground.

“He’s willing to learn and you can see he has some great attributes so there’s no reason why he can’t play at that level.”