Andy Robertson asks key question of Scotland squad amid criticism and reveals what he 'didn't agree with'

A point current captain Andy Robertson felt compelled to make in the Hampden dressing room after some jeers had greeted the final whistle of what was a difficult watch for the Tartan Army, despite ultimately achieving the desired outcome.

With November’s final two qualification games on the horizon, Robertson knows a draw in Greece and a home win over Denmark will finally put an end to Scotland's 28-year exile from the tournament, and he made sure he reminded his teammates of how well they have done to put the country in such an exciting position.

“After the game, I went around a couple of them and asked them what age they were the last time Scotland qualified for a World Cup,” said the skipper. “Because if it were easy, we'd be qualifying every four years. It's not. People have come before us, not qualified, and we're not qualified. We are the next group to try and stop it. We've made history in terms of getting back to tournaments, but we also want to make history now. But it's far from easy; you're playing against good teams.

“Belarus are no mugs, we should be beating them comfortably, but they can play. We've managed to get the win, we've got six points. Maybe 10 years ago, maybe eight years ago even, would we have got the six points with how we performed? Possibly not. I played in a game where we drew against Lithuania at home here, which was probably similar, and that shouldn't have happened. We're on 10 points from 12, I think that's pretty good.”

‘I didn’t agree with Greece boos - but zero complaints over Belarus’

While miffed by the unrest among sections of the crowd during the 3-1 comeback win over Greece on Thursday, Robertson admitted he had "zero complaints" with the fans’ reaction to what they witnessed against the Belarusians.

Goals in each half from Che Adams and Scott McTominay sealed the win, but it was an uncomfortable evening for the hosts, particularly after Hleb Kuchko’s injury-time strike produced some last minute jitters.

While Steve Clarke’s side were able to secure huge back-to-back home wins and book at least a place in the World Cup play-offs in the process, supporters were frustrated by the below-par performance, as Scotland allowed a nation ranked 57 places below them in the FIFA world rankings a total of 22 shots at goal on a turgid night in Glasgow.

“We should never have been in that position,” said Robertson. “The last few minutes, it's 2-1, they throw their big centre-backs up. It wasn't great. It doesn't feel exactly great, but there was huge frustration. I completely understand it [the reaction]. When you put in a performance like that, the reaction was absolutely normal. I didn't agree with the booing at half-time against Greece, I'd admit, at 0-0, I don't think that's great for us, but against Belarus, I've got absolutely zero complaints.

“When they see what they're seeing on the pitch, and we're struggling against a team that we should be beating, we should be beating comfortably, we're not hiding away from that, then I've got no problems at all. Obviously, we're going to need them against Denmark at home, and hopefully they can show up and create a special atmosphere for us. But it's up to us to try and create that as well. It was also a part of nerves from the fans as well, and rightly so.”

Tired legs not an excuse

On his own performance, the 31-year-old left-back refused to use tired legs as an excuse. The defender has played just 117 minutes of league football with Liverpool this season after losing his place in the starting XI following the £40million arrival of Hungarian Milos Kerkez in the summer from Bournemouth. However, Robertson doesn’t believe his lack of match fitness had much impact on his performance, despite playing over 120 minutes in the space of just four days.

“No, I wouldn't say that [being tired],” said Robertson. “I would just say Thursday was a really high, intense game, and it's quite a quick turnaround and things like that. Now we're all starting into the intense period of the season, where we're playing Saturday, Tuesday, or we're playing Sunday, Thursday every single week, so there's a lot of football for the lads, but I also think it wasn't down to all of that.

“We just struggled with the ball, and we struggled without the ball at times, but at the end of the day, we've won the game. We're on 10 points, which I think if you offered any Scotland fan, or us, at the end of October, we’d all bite your hand off for it, so that's a positive. We're two games away from getting to the World Cup, which, at the start of the campaign, probably a lot of people didn't put us down for that, so we're happy with where we're at.

“We're not happy with the performance, but we're happy with where we are on the table. You could tell that by the end of the game in terms of how the players reacted, but I think also a bit of perspective needs to be put in place.”