Steven Fletcher believes Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Ireland shows Scotland are mentally ready for the pivotal closing stretch of their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
With four matches remaining, Scotland are currently in third place, which would be good enough to secure at least a play-off, with a two-point advantage over Martin O’Neill’s men.
Poland and Germany occupy the top two slots that guarantee automatic qualification and both teams still have to visit Hampden later this year.
Before then, Gordon Strachan’s men face a tricky away tie against Georgia in Tbilisi.
Scotland beat Georgia 1-0 at Ibrox last October and Fletcher says they will go into their final qualifying matches with confidence after a creditable draw in Dublin.
He said: “That was a great result.
“It was a hard game but to get a point is a great result for us.
“We dug deep and came back from being 1-0 down at an arena like that, which was a fantastic place to play. We did well. I thought we showed character and a good team spirit.
“The boys will go on holiday now and then we will re-evaluate it and see where we are. We have got a lot of good games coming up.”
It was a hard-fought 90 minutes with the tough tackling and robust challenges occasionally interrupted by brief passages of passing football.
The Irish adopted an aggressive approach, which paid off for them in the first half, with Jon Walters opening the scoring from close range.
But Scotland earned a point after John O’Shea diverted a Shaun Maloney effort beyond his own goalkeeper Shay Given.
Fletcher expected a scrappy match and was pleased the Scots managed to stand up to the challenge.
He said: “I knew it was going to be hard from playing against John in training. He kicks me in training, so I knew he would kick me out there.
“I will have a few bruises but it was a good, competitive game. We knew it was going to be tough but we are glad to get the result.
“I don’t think Ireland went over the line at all. It was a game of football between two passionate teams.
“We both went out for the win and a draw was a fair result. We knew as they were the home team, they would come at us but I thought we dealt with it well.
“There were a few tackles going in but that happens in football. We are happy with the result.”
Time will tell how important Saturday’s draw in Dublin will be but taking four points from a possible six against Ireland has been a welcome boost for Scotland’s hopes of reaching Euro 2016 in France next summer.
Fletcher added: “We knew before the game Ireland would come out sharply.
“The onus was on them as the home team and we just had to ride it out, which we did. They got a goal from a corner and we will look back on that to learn from it.
“Gordon Strachan is a great manager and told us what we had to do at half-time. We got an early goal and managed to put them on the back foot.
“We were just unlucky that we didn’t manage to get another opportunity to get another one.”