Andy Robertson isn’t taking his Scotland place for granted.
Because the former Dundee United star knows that there could be a Tayside old boys battle for the left-back starting slot in the crunch Group D clash with Ireland in the summer.
Last week Craig Forsyth impressed against Northern Ireland in the midweek friendly, before Robertson was given the nod for the Gibraltar qualifier.
A new formation for the match against the group minnows didn’t bring out the best of Robertson in the first half, but when Gordon Strachan went back to a more conventional system after the break, the Hull City man was much more impressive.
Strachan has the likes of Steven Whittaker, and maybe Charlie Mulgrew, who could also be deployed on the left side of defence in Dublin.
But if he and ex-Dundee man Craig Forsyth are the two front-runners, Robertson doesn’t believe he will automatically get the number three jersey.
“I don’t think of myself as the first choice for Scotland,” he insisted. “Definitely not.
“Craig Forsyth is a very good player, he’s been excellent for Derby and was very good against Northern Ireland on Wednesday.
“So it’s a battle for the jersey and we will bounce off each other. It’s a good thing because we want to be pushing each other to see who gets into the team.
“It’s healthy for Scotland to have competition and both of us will be determined to push the other one hard every time.”
With Germany back on track after a shaky start to their qualification campaign, Robertson expects the World Champions to take a grip of the group in the final few matches and clinch first place.
But second spot, and automatic progress to France 2016, is a realistic goal for Scotland, he believes.
“The next game is Ireland now and we’ll go there in the summer looking to get a win and take a step closer to where we want to be,” he said.
“That’s going to be a massive game for the group because if we can win it would be huge.
“Germany let the group open up more than people expected when they lost to Poland, so everyone feels they have a chance.
“The Germans were not at their best to start the group but I believe they’ll pick up.
“They are not World Cup winners for nothing and I still expect them to have enough in the second half of the campaign to win the group.
“But Poland still have to come to our place and we still have to play Ireland in our next game.
“So it’s all there for everyone and hopefully we can pick up a win in Ireland over the summer and take things on from there again.”
Robertson admitted that the Gibraltar match was a “weird” one.
He explained: “We expected them to sit deep but they caught us with a counter attack.
“Obviously when it went 1-1 that wasn’t anything we’d planned, but we got the goal back pretty quickly.
“The goal they scored was a good one from their lad, to be fair, but we should have stopped it.
“Defensively we changed things around because of the type of game it was.
“But apart from the goal, I felt we were comfortable and then the manager changed things again when we were 4-1 in front.
“We’ve won 6-1 and it’s another three points so although we’ve played a lot better than what we did, everything is still positive.”
Hull have started climbing the Premier League table, with Robertson in the side, and look a good bet to avoid the relegation scrap.
And before his thoughts turn back to Scotland, club football will be the former Queen’s Park full-back’s focus.
He said: “Things are good at the moment, I’m back in the team and feel I’m playing well.
“I just want to play my part in helping Hull get to safety and that’s my focus between now and the end of the season.
“It has been a good first season in the Premiership and I just want to play as many games as I can.”