Lancaster's Scott McTominay faces wait as Scotland knockout phase hopes fade at World Cup

Lancaster footballer Scott McTominay faces an anxious wait to see if Scotland make it to the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup for the first time.

The midfielder has played in each of Scotland's three group matches at the tournament in the USA, as they beat Haiti 1-0 but lost 1-0 to Morocco and then 3-0 to Brazil.

After finishing in third place in their group, the Scots must now be one of the eight best third placed teams to qualify for the Round of 32.

But results last night, with Ecuador beating Germany, Sweden drawing with Japan and Australia drawing with Paraguay, means Scotland now sit eighth in the third placed teams table, clinging on to fading hopes of qualification for the knockout phase.

They are now relying on at least four other third placed teams not managing to reach three points, or they do so with a worse goal difference than them (Scotland's is minus three).

As it stands there are four third placed teams ranked below Scotland who have only played two matches (Cape Verde, Belgium, DR Congo and Senegal), while there are two others (Algeria and Croatia) who are level on points with a game to play.

Scotland will be watching the remaining group games closely hoping results go in their favour, to avoid yet another early exit from a major tournament which began so brightly with the win over Haiti on June 14, their first in a World Cup since 1998.

But the narrow loss to Morocco on June 19 was followed overnight on June 24 by a chastening defeat to the five-time champions Brazil.

McTominay came close to netting, forcing saves from the Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson, but the Scots were ultimately outclassed as Vinicius Jnr (2) and Cunha netted for the South Americans.

The Napoli and former Manchester United star, 29, is an ex-pupil of St Wilfrid's Primary School in Halton and Our Lady's in Lancaster,