Firefighting brothers give Steve Clarke Euro2024 hope after achieving European football glory

Two firefighting brothers have shown the Scotland men’s team how it’s done by achieving European football glory.

Cory and Reece Pearson lined up for the UK side in the ­Firefighters’ European ­Championships, held in Montrichard in France.

In the final, the UK beat Germany 1-0 to win the ­tournament for the first time since 1994.

Reece, 30, who scored the winning goal, and central midfielder Cory, 26, hope it will inspire the men’s national team to reach the group stages at Euro 2024, which begin in Germany next month.

Cory, a firefighter in Glasgow’s West Division, also plays for West of Scotland League Second Division side Yoker Athletic FC. This was his first Euros.

He said: “We play for the West team in Scotland and for the Scotland firefighters team. However, this was a UK team and the selection included several Scotland players.

“Reece and I have been playing all our lives and I also play for Yoker Athletic.

“We needed to win our last two games in the tournament. We beat France 1-0 and we beat Germany by the same result.

“The Germans were a lot more technical but we worked harder. Hopefully, Scotland can take inspiration and get out of the group stages.

“That would be seen as a victory for Scotland in the Euros.”

Proud UK firefighters ­assistant manager Iain McAdam, 45, said: “The UK team has always competed in the tournament with the best players from England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland eligible to play.

“The last time we went over was in 2019 when we played the Germans and Czech Republic.Due to Covid, this has been the first tournament since then.

“We were the winners of the tournament and the games were played last week.

“It’s the first time it has been won in 30 years when the ­tournament was held in Lyon in France.

“Cory and his brother are both ­firefighters.

“They were playing at the same time and were really good players. It
was great to have them on board.”

The Scotland national team’s head coach Steve Clarke will take his squad to Germany next month but the former ­Kilmarnock manager faces a sweat over injured players including Brighton midfielder Billy Gilmour, Bologna captain Lewis Ferguson and Brentford right-back Aaron Hickey.

The Scots are one of four teams in Group A and will open the tournament by playing hosts Germany in Munich on June 14 before facing Hungary and Switzerland.

Iain said: “We beat the Germans in the last game of the firefighters tournament and Scotland will play them in the first game of the Euros proper so we are hoping the players can take this on board and get a victory. We live in hope.”

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