Tommy Conway at the weekend scored his 5th goal in his last 6 Middlesbrough games. Further, his impressive output going back to January, is despite him this season being moved to play wide left in the Boro attack. There’s a crowded field of Scottish strikers hoping for a seat on the plane to this year’s World Cup. Does the hard working Conway, merit a seat on that plane with the Scotland Men’s National Team (SMNT)?
| Name | Tommy Conway |
| Age | 23 |
| Club | Middlesbrough |
| Club’s division | English 2nd tier |
| Club’s division Opta rating | 80.9 (10th globally)* |
| SMNT full caps | 8 |
| SMNT goals | 0 |
| Most recent cap | March 2026 (v Cote d’Ivoire) |
* As a benchmark, the Scottish top flight at 75.4 is today ranked 40th by Opta
Tommy Conway background
Tommy Conway was born in Taunton. His Scotland eligibility is from his paternal grandfather, Daniel, who hails from Stirling. Tommy Conway has Daniel as a middle name.
Conway remarked in March 2024 on scoring his 1st goal for Scotland U21s:
“When I skippered the team in the summer that was an emotional one, I’ll be honest. When I was walking the team out I was thinking about my grandad and I scored my first goal as well. To think I’m doing him proud is one thing. I also know how much it means to my dad and my family. I love it when I come away and I know how proud it makes my family.”
He added that if not selected for Euro 2024, he’d be going as a fan if not selected as a player:
“[Ex-Scotland B internationalist] Scott Murray funnily enough is the kitman at Bristol City. He’s driving from Bristol to Germany with his brother. If I’m not going I said I’d be jumping in with him. It’ll be class. He was thinking I’d be the man to get the tickets! I said I hoped I could!”
Tommy Conway at Bristol City
Conway’s breakthrough season was 2022/23. In his 1st start of that league campaign, he scored a double in a 4-1 win at Coventry City. That marked the start of a hot streak of 7 goals and 3 assists in 9 games. During this hot streak he was awarded EFL Young Player of the Month for August 2022. Then, his goals became tougher to find. He ended that season with 9 league and 3 cup goals.
The season after, Conway scored league 10 goals, ending the season as Bristol City Young Player of the Year. He then left the Robins in Summer 2024 with 20 goals from his 78 league games at the Ashton Gate club.
Tommy Conway at Middlesbrough
1st season on Teesside
Conway’s highlight of his 2024/25 1st season at Boro, was scoring home and away eliminating top tier West Ham from the FA Cup. He ended that season with 13 goals from 36 league games.
“He’s the best team player you can have”
In this Conway’s 2nd Boro season, mid-season new boss Kim Hellberg moved Conway to the left side of the attack. Hellberg was gushing in a lengthy tribute to Conway that included:
“He’s actually the first or second name I put down on the team sheet because he’s brilliant for the team. He’s doing everything for the team.”
“You’re not playing tennis, you’re not playing for yourself, you’re playing for everyone else and I think he’s unbelievable. He’s very, very important and I could not be more proud of him.”
“I think that is unbelievable and I think that is important to get that message through in a world where we’re talking about individual players, he’s the best team player you can have.”
“He’s everything I want in a player because he can play in different positions. He did some amazing defensive things, he had some amazing offensive things where he created opportunities, he ran in behind.”
Hellberg added:
“He can play to the left, he can play central, he can drop deeper, he can link the play. He presses well and he’s good in the box too.”
“He gives me an opportunity to switch in the games, being able to adapt, to enable us to use the spaces. I think he’s brilliant. He’s a very good player to the left with that mobility because if you look at our games, he creates a lot of chances from coming in.”
Tommy Conway’s output this season
Conway had a lengthy barren spell in the 1st half of the season. It was in that period when Hellberg spoke out in support of him (see above). Much to Conway’s credit, he has displayed the resilience to come through that dry spell. He ended the regular season very much in form. Scoring against Stoke City in January on match day 26, marked the start of 10 goals and 3 assists in the last 19 league games of the regular season. The table below summarises his form in those 19 games.
| Minutes | 1410 |
| Goals | 10 |
| Assists | 3 |
| Goals & assists | 13 |
| Mins per goal | 141 |
| Mins per goal/assist | 108 |
| Penalties | 3 |
| Minutes per goal excluding penalties | 201 |
| Minutes per goal/assist excluding penalties | 141 |
In total in the 2025/26 regular league season he scored 13 goals; 8th equal highest in the division. He also has 5 assists for a combined 2025/26 regular league season tally of 18.
Tommy Conway playing for SMNT
Conway has yet to score in his 8 SMNT games. While that obviously could be better, in those 8 games he has played only 253 minutes. That includes 94 minutes in the 2 games in the most recent international break in which he played on the left side. While by no means a standout in those 2 games v very handy opposition (Japan & Cote D’Ivoire), Conway was widely commended for his work rate. Hellberg thus appears to have been correct in his assessment above of Conway. The Japan game is Conway’s only SMNT start to date. Afterwards, Conway said:
“I really enjoyed it out there. I felt like it took me a while to get into the game, but once we got to grips with it, I naturally got into the game. Obviously it’s been a while since I played for Scotland, but I like to think I took into the game what we’ve been working on in training. It wasn’t too dissimilar to what I’m doing at club level. That’s more or less where I’ve been playing – off the left and trying to come in and make things happen.”
Conway added that captain Andy Robertson was, “talking me through the game. There’s no-one better in football to have behind you,” he said. “Hopefully it is a combination on which we can build. When you are not having an impact in possession, you’ve got to have an impact out of possession and I feel like me and Robbo did that in the first half. In the second half, I thought our press was a lot better and allowed us to get up the pitch and in someone’s face and that is a strength of mine.”
Strikers contending for the Scotland WC 2026 squad
The 3 likeliest
Barring injury, Clarke seems certain to select his 2 preferred forwards of his Scotland tenure for the squad; Che Adams & Lyndon Dykes. “Partial distraction of the rectus femoris in Che Adams’ right thigh”, kept Adams out of the Torino line up at the weekend. That announcement by Torino didn’t indicate how long Adams would be out of action for. At present there seems no suggestion Adams won’t be ready for the World Cup.
Lawrence Shankland missed the March international break through injury. Otherwise Shankland has been in good form for Hearts this season. Further, Shankland scored in that epic Hampden evening in November, winning 4-2 v Denmark.
Other strikers in contention
Conway & Boro are through to the promotion play-offs where they will play Ross Stewart’s Southampton. Oli McBurnie‘s Hull City are also through to the play-offs. Hence there’s time for all of those 3 to further stake their claim to Clarke for a squad place. It’s also though, a possibility to pick up an injury; something Stewart will especially be aware of given his injuries in the last 3 years. All 3 scored in England’s 2nd tier at the weekend, as did another Scot, George Hirst for auto-promoted Ipswich. Hirst was reasonably impressive in Scotland’s March friendlies.
Another Scots striker with lengthy injury history, Fraser Hornby, missed playing for Darmstadt at the weekend. Oli Burke continues to get regular game time for Union Berlin. Burke’s output though remains infrequent.
Robbie Ure playing in Sweden also has more time to impress, given the Swedish football season runs from Spring to Autumn. Ure has attracted headlines for his electric start to the Swedish season. And Kieron Bowie at the weekend reached a new zenith on his career in Serie A. Bowie scored for Verona to draw 1-1 away at Italy’s wealthiest club, Juventus.
Will Tommy Conway go to WC 2026?
For Clarke’s 26 man World Cup squad, Clarke will likely select at least 4 and possibly 5 strikers. Conway’s selection is difficult to predict with a high level of confidence. The stakes for Steve Clarke at WC 2026 are sky high. As per above, there’s a crowded field of contenders for limited places in Clarke’s WC squad. Conway & Hirst both made the squad and played in the March internationals. Hence it may well be that those 2 like Adams, Dykes & Shankland, have squad incumbency favouring them.
Tommy Conway also has in his favour the versatility & team attitude described so enthusiastically by Hellberg above. That combined with his impressive late season form, could well be enough to earn him a seat on the plane.
