Scotland v Belgium: Jamie Mackie aiming to fill Kenny Miller's boots However, Kenny showed how to lead the line and, like everyone else, I'm now hoping to get the chance to do it for Scotland. Like most of his contemporaries, Mackie was taken aback by Miller's decision to make himself unavailable for selection by Gordon Strachan. "I didn't have any dialogue with Kenny so I didn't know his thought process," he admits. After seeing him score a fantastic goal at Wembley - and how well he played overall - I was stunned when the news broke while I was in the dressing room at Forest. It came as a complete shock to me. More so because I hadn't been in Scotland squads and got a sense of anything. To me, it had just seemed that Kenny was going along very well and as fit as ever. I didn't know his intentions, although I don't know if anyone did. After playing so well against England, it was a real surprise. Mackie had been absent from the national team's squads for six months after being sidelined by Harry Redknapp at Queens Park Rangers and is now aiming to make up for lost time, starting by making a contribution against the Belgians at Hampden tomorrow night. "I am delighted to be back, really pleased," he said. I think the last time I was in was the manager's first game, the friendly against Estonia at Aberdeen. I haven't been involved since. Without a doubt, it was a concern that I might start to fall out of the picture. There was an element of that in my thinking in leaving QPR for Forest. QPR were obviously bringing in a lot of players at the time, so it was hard for me to play every week. When you're not playing for the national side, and with a new manager, I thought things might have changed for me. However, I worked hard, got my move and now things are looking up again. I wanted to be playing every week at club level and I knew I'd get the opportunity at Forest. I also thought it would be my best chance of returning to the Scotland squad. Mackie has previously been deployed in wide areas by Scotland (Craig Levein even used him as a right-back in his craven 4-6-0 formation in Prague three years ago) but he craves the main striker's role. "I want opportunities to prove myself in a more central role," he said. In the last few weeks I've been playing down the middle for Forest. Hopefully, I can show people why I'm at my best there. For the majority of time with QPR I was playing out wide and I know I did a good job there in the Premier League but it's not where I'm at my best. Now there's an opportunity here in the Scotland squad, not just for myself but all the strikers, to try and put our name on that shirt. Meanwhile Kevin McHattie insists Scotland Under-21s have no option but to take their embarrassing defeat to England on the chin if they are to bounce back with a win over Holland. The Hearts defender admits the players were hurting badly after the 6-0 thrashing at Bramall Lane in a friendly last month. But he is adamant the young Scots will not dwell on the result as they prepare to steer themselves back on track in Thursday night's European Championship qualifier in Nijmegen. He said: "The boys were disappointed with the last result but we've got to build ourselves up and look forward to this game. It's a massive game in the qualifiers and we are looking forward to it. Especially with it being against England, that result was going to hurt us. But it's vital that we move on and hopefully we can perform well in this game. We've just got to take it on the chin and try to perform well in the next game. We are not going to dwell on it, that's probably the wrong thing to do. Holland are favourites to top the group but McHattie says Scotland can take heart from a 2-1 win at the same venue in November 2011. He said: "They are a good team and they have a lot of good players. They are quick, direct, good at the back and good going forward. We just have to be on our toes and watch out for that. The last group of 21s beat them 2-1 so we have got faith. We've just got to work hard and see what we can do. Billy Stark's side sit level on points with Slovakia at the top of the group, with the Dutch kicking off their own campaign against the Scots.