Scotland midfielder Steven Naismith has warned fans there could be more misery to come before results start to pick up.
The national side fly out to Zagreb today ahead of Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Croatia sitting bottom of Group A and ranked joint 78th in the world with Congo, below the likes of Cape Verde and Jordan, after a disappointing slump in results.
And the chances of securing a morale-boosting win any time soon do not look great on paper, with a summer friendly against England to be followed by difficult home qualifiers against qualification-chasing Belgium and Croatia and a tricky trip to Macedonia.
Having said all that, Naismith has been buoyed by the inclusion of younger prospects in the Scotland squad this week and hopes the injection of youthful enthusiasm can give the Tartan Army renewed hope of a brighter future.
“We do need to believe that we can come up against the best teams in the world,” the striker stressed.“We know we’ll need to defend and ride our luck a few times but we’ve got good enough players to go and hurt teams like Croatia and that’s what we need to get back to.
“Getting a great result on Friday would bring a lot of confidence to the squad which we then need to build on the next time.
“It’s got to be about building for Euro 2016 and there might be some games where the manager tries things and they don’t work out but there will be other times the manager tries things and they do work out.
“But it’s got to be all about the next campaign because this one has been a disaster.”
He added “We’ve got to use this time wisely and there might be more pain to come we hope not but there might be and, to be honest, I think a lot of fans will realise that.
“But don’t get me wrong. In training, every player here has looked comfortable and not as if they doubt they should be here, so the manager will have a job picking the team on Friday.
“Everybody knows Croatia are a great team and we’re going to need to play at our best to have a chance, because they are right in the mix.
“They will look at the game as if they need to win it and we’ve got nothing to play for but a lot of times when that happens the result doesn’t go the way everybody thinks.
“The pressure is all on Croatia because they need to win, and that’s something we’ve got to use to our advantage.”
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