MARTIN’S GEARED UP TO BE THE FALL GUY AS GRIFF STEALS SHOW
Chris urges Leigh to keep scoring even though he knows it’ll cost him caps
CHRIS MARTIN admits he will happily play second fiddle if Leigh Griffiths fires Scotland to a World Cup.
The Derby Country striker is set for an extended spell as back-up with his replacement taking a solid grip of the starting jersey.
Martin started the Russia 2018 campaign as the first choice for Gordon Strachan.
However, Griffiths looks to have taken his mantle having won the nod from the boss for the last three qualifiers. The Celtic striker strengthened his hold on the No.9 shirt with two blistering free-kick goals against England last weekend to open his international account and stamp his mark on the side. Martin, who ironically replaced
Griffiths to score the winner in the previous match against Slovenia, was thrilled for his team-mate.
And although he remains desperate to play the 28-year-old admits he won’t mind standing aside if Griffiths can shoot the Scots to a first major tournament in two decades next summer.
Martin said: “People have seen that from Leigh up here.
“I’ve not seen him in as many games as you guys have but we know the quality he possesses, especially with his finishing and his free-kicks. He’s got a helluva left foot on him but his all-round contribution against England was very good.
“It’s not just the goals but the way he was putting himself about, holding the ball up, bringing people into play and the runs he was making in behind.
“I thought a few people had good games but for Griff it’s something he can build on now.
“He’s scored his first goals for Scotland and hopefully he can continue to score goals and fire us to qualification.”
Martin had a big role to play in
Griffiths’s heroics. The bustling attacker dragged Gary Cahill under the ball to help Ryan Fraser win a free-kick for the first Scotland goal. Then he was sent tumbling by Jake Livermore to give Griffiths his second opening. Martin said: “I didn’t really do much. Griff has whacked in the two unbelievable free-kicks that got us the lead. “There was some great quality from Griff with those.” Martin’s modesty and preference to praise the man who has taken his place sums up the spirit within the camp.
Strachan has fostered a real togetherness among the group and the players were desperate to give their boss a win over the English.
The national gaffer looked drained after the contest and Martin said: “He was just a bit disappointed.
“He said it could have been a hell of a result. He praised Leigh for his contribution and said it would have been one of his most memorable nights in football if we had managed to see it through.
“But we didn’t so we can’t dwell on that too much. It was a draw in the end. It’s not a terrible result against a very good side but it was a disappointing one in the context of the game.”
That was an understatement. But Scotland can’t afford to feel sorry for themselves when the campaign resumes in the autumn.
Four wins against Malta, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia will likely be required to snare a play-off position in November.
Martin said: “We need a little while to analyse it. It’s very raw right now.
“Hopefully we can because we were ever so close.
“There are a certain amount of people saying we should have seen it through and that we should be disappointed.
“But the only option now is to try to learn from it and move on positively.
“We knew before the game that they’re a very good side, full of quality, playing right at the top level. I can see why, for sure, but we matched them for large periods.
“They had a lot of possession but I didn’t think they created a massive amount. We at least deserved a draw. Maybe we could have gone on and won it.
“The crowd were tremendous. They really spurred us on. That’s one of the best atmospheres I’ve played in front of.
“We were just disappointed that we couldn’t send them home happy.
“You want to be the man that the crowd are shouting for and singing your name. It spurs you on.
“The lads got encouragement from it, especially in the second half. We grew in belief as the game wore on.
“We’re just bitterly disappointed we weren’t able to win the game.
“We have to look at ourselves and say that we should have seen that through.
“There were only a couple of minutes to go after that. We broke from the free-kick but unfortunately they put it back in the box and managed to score.
“It’s a bit of a tough one to analyse and we were all disappointed that we weren’t able to see it through after coming back.
“But we also showed great character to get back into it.
“I don’t know how the next games are going to go. Honestly, I have no idea and don’t know if we can analyse it right now.
“We will just take that England game at face value and say it was disappointing to not hold on to all three points. In the context of the group it might end up costing us.
“We’ve got four games now and they’re all winnable so we need to go into them with the mentality we can win them all and see where we go.”