GORDON Greer has insisted he will never take a page out of Scott Brown's book and retire from international football. While the Celtic captain last week informed Gordon Strachan that he had played his last match for Scotland at the age of 31, the Blackburn Rovers defender - who was older when he received his first cap than Brown was when he received his last - is busy making up for lost time.

So determined was the 35-year-old not to sacrifice his squad berth with Scotland when he was released from Brighton this summer that he spoke at length with national team manager Gordon Strachan before agreeing to join Owen Coyle at Blackburn. While the Ewood Park side - who yesterday added another Scot to their ranks in the form of Charlie Mulgrew - sit rock bottom of the SkyBet Championship, Greer has six first-team appearances under this belt this season already and if Strachan names his team on the strength of their game time thus far, then it will be he and Christophe Berra who start against Malta on Sunday, and not the regular duo from the previous campaign, Russell Martin and Hanley.

"Everybody's circumstances are different," said Greer. "I came into it very late, while Broony was probably playing international football early on. But I would never turn my back on my country. I can totally see it [why Brown retired] but at the same time I have waited this long so I am not going to give it up easy. I wanted to stay in the Championship purely so I could stay in the Scotland squad. I spoke to Gordon and he was great - he gave me some advice and I am sure he spoke to Owen Coyle as well."

The likes of Richard Gough, Colin Hendry and David Weir all did a sterling job for Scotland in their mid-to-late 30s and Greer feels he too is getting better, and not worse, as he gets older. "In one sense it is frustrating, that everyone just looks at your age and doesn't look at your stats from the game," said Greer. "But in another way, it is a good thing, because you look within yourself and think 'could I have done better?', 'could I do more?'. I think as a defender you get better with age."