Scotland manager Gordon Strachan praised his players for holding their nerve to win 5-1 in Malta last night.
Strachan’s men sit proudly at the top of Group F after an ultimately comfortable victory at the Ta’ Qali Stadium.
A hat-trick from Robert Snodgrass and a goal apiece from Chris Martin and sub Steven Fletcher got the job done.
The visitors didn’t get it all their own way, however, and nerves were frayed after Alfred Effiong made it 1-1.
So Strachan was both happy and relieved after this decent start to the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Russia in 2018 still looks a long way off and Scotland will suffer the usual high and lows in this campaign.
All Strachan – and the supporters – can hope for is there are enough highs to get the team to a finals for the first time since France 98.
The Scotland boss said: “Winning was all we had to do.
“We also wanted to perform but winning is what mattered tonight.
“We started well but then got too far away from each other.
“It got to a point at 1-1 – and many a player has been there and you have to handle it – when you think about the next month and what you have to put up with.
“You have to deal with that and it’s not easy to play when it gets to that stage.
“The nerves, stress and even lack of fitness take over and you could be on the end of a historic result.
“We were also up against a team that has given Croatia and Italy good games.
“So there were concerns, of course there were.
“Everyone was concerned but we were lucky that we had a bunch of lads who could deal with the stress that manifests itself in those situations.
“That just shows that in a crisis they could deal with it and it was a crisis at 1-1.
“It went from everyone enjoying themselves to the Scotland fans saying to themselves: ‘Oh we’ve seen this before.’ The Malta fans were thinking: ‘Could this be the night that we get one of those big results.
“However, thankfully, the players laid that to rest and dealt with it.”
While Strachan was pleased overall, it was a different story for Malta coach Pietro Ghedin.
He said: “I am not happy, even though in the first half we played really well.
“For this kind of match you need to be at 100%. If you are even 80% then you suffer.
“Scotland played really well and I wasn’t surprised about that.
“I can only say sorry and that we will try to play better next time.”
