James Morrison came close to scoring as many goals against Chelsea as he has for Scotland in his whole international career.
A missed penalty for West Brom against Jose Mourinho’s men cost the attacking midfielder a headline-making hat-trick at the Hawthorns a couple of weeks ago.
Still, two was pretty good.
And if the chance comes on Friday, Morrison has backed himself to score a goal in Georgia that would take Scotland another step closer to Euro 2016.
“I was disappointed to miss the penalty against Chelsea,” he admitted.
“And, even though I scored twice, we still lost the game.
“But we bounced back and won at Stoke, which is what you always try to do after a defeat so I’m happy with myself that I showed the character to do that.
“I play a different role with Scotland than I do for West Brom. The gaffer likes two midfielders just to sit in but, if an opportunity crops up, I’m quite confident that I can put it away.
“So far I’ve got three international goals but I should probably have a few more. Chances are quite hard to come by at that level, though, and games tend to be quite close.”
The adjustment from Premier league football to international football is a significant one, according to the former Middlesbrough man, but it’s one he enjoys taking on.
“The Premier League’s more athletic and up and down but the international game is more controlled,” he said.
“It’s all about breaking teams down and you’re usually playing against better opposition.
“Basically, international football is more tactical and it’s a challenge, travelling to distant countries and coming up against different approaches.
“You need to be more disciplined when you’re playing for your country. You can’t really make tackles at all anymore because you get booked for the slightest things.
“Red cards come quite easily although last weekend there were about five players sent off in the Premier League.
“Playing for Scotland, we need to stick together through difficult periods in games if we’re to come out the other end on top.”
Morrison isn’t a veteran of as many failed qualifying campaigns as the likes of Shaun Maloney, Craig Gordon and Darren Fletcher, but nor is he a johnny-come-lately.
And he admitted that the weight of history is impossible to escape.
“I’m not going to lie, you do feel it sometimes,” the 29-year-old said.
“But whatever game you’re playing in the gaffer drums it into us that we need to be positive and to keep doing what we’ve been doing.
“We’ve played well in our recent matches. Even in Dublin where we were under the cosh, we came out in the second half and got on top of them.
“That’s the kind of reaction we want in high-pressure games. This is probably the toughest qualifying section in the competition so it will be a job well done if we can get out of it.
“It’s basically down to the next round of fixtures and there’s going to be a lot of hard work involved.
“We’ve done the first part but now we have the second part to do. We’re well equipped and a good week’s training will see us right.
“There is no points target. I think there will be upsets along the way. If we have enough points to qualify we’ll have done our job.”
We’re at the stage where one bad result could have fatal consequences for all four of the nations trying to squeeze into two automatic qualifying places and one play-off spot.
But Morrison insisted that the Scottish camp are viewing the run-in as an opportunity rather than a potential pitfall.
“This is the moment that we’ve been waiting for,” he said.
“This is a challenge to be embraced.
“We’re all aware that we’ve got a chance, the group’s really tight at the top and, however many points it takes, we’ve got to get them.
“We’ve got to win, really, and we’ll do everything we can to get that result.”
He added: “We have to get a positive outcome ahead of two good games at home. It’s hard to say what we need.
“I don’t think it is a must-win because we could lose and then beat Germany and Poland. It’s a must not lose.
“We know that Ireland needed until the 90th minute to beat them and when we get the chance then we need to put it away.
“We played really well when we beat Georgia at Ibrox and we could have had three or four goals. If we can take that same performance over there then I’m confident of a victory.
“I think we’ve had some good performances in the group Germany away, Poland away, even Ireland away. We just need to keep that going and put in solid displays and we won’t be too far away.
“There will be huge delight if we come out on top.”