Andy Robertson has revealed the first thing he will do when he returns to Anfield is thank his Liverpool teammates for helping keep Scotland’s World Cup dream alive.
The former Dundee United full-back is thriving at club and international level, with the bright start he has made to his career with the Reds in the English Premier League matched by his fabulous form for the Dark Blues.
Robertson swung over the cross that led to Leigh Griffiths goal – the Scots’ second of the night – against Malta at Hampden on Monday night.
A 2-0 victory for Gordon Strachan’s men in their Group F qualifier still wasn’t enough to hold the door open to Russia, however.
Robertson and his colleagues still required the English to see off second-placed Slovakia at Wembley that same evening.
The Auld Enemy – skippered by Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson and including new signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – duly obliged with a 2-1 come-from-behind success.
That result meant the Slovakians, who visit Hampden on October 5 before the final group game against Slovenia three days later, are still catchable.
So Scotland are in control of their own destiny, with two wins in the final fixtures meaning second spot – and a likely play-off – will be theirs.
Robertson said: “Obviously it’s a bit of a joke that no Scottish person wants England to win but they did their job, which we needed them to do.
“When I go back down I will be thanking the England boys at Liverpool for helping to put it back in to our hands.
“There wasn’t too much chat about it beforehand because we knew we had to get on with it and take care of Malta first.
“If we slipped up it wouldn’t have made much of a difference what happened at Wembley.
“England want to qualify and finish top of the group and they managed to get the three points so they (Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain and unused sub Daniel Sturridge) will be full of confidence.
“We didn’t know what the score was down there.
“We heard the cheer from our fans and I guess that was when they equalised.
“At the end of the day, England are very good at home and they don’t often slip up in qualifiers. It looks that way again.
“But we still have our job to do.”
Robertson believes the Scotland players have confounded the doubters – including some in the media – by keeping the door open to qualification this late in the campaign.
The former Tannadice defender added: “It’s not really a situation most people thought we would be in at this stage.
“I think if you’d asked most fans or journalists after the first Lithuania game they would have said ‘typical Scotland.’
“But we are still in it and now Slovakia at home is going to be absolutely massive.
“I’m sure Hampden will be a sell-out and there will be a great atmosphere.
“The players will be up for it because winning breeds confidence.
“These two last games against Lithuania and Malta have been spot on.
“We’ve not conceded a goal, produced two good performances and taken six points.
“The aim was to be going in to the last two games with a chance and that’s what happened.
“We believe can win them and it’s in our hands.
“We can’t ask for more at this stage. A lot of people looked at Lithuania away as another banana skin like Georgia.
“However, the lads were different class over there and took that into Monday.
“Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a glamorous performance by any means.
“We probably took our foot off the gas when it got to 2-0 but the main thing was we didn’t give them a sniff.
“You can’t ask for more than three points.”
