I’ve been getting it in the Eck from all sides but only way I can get folk to support me is to WIN

Defiant McLeish won’t quit job he feels he’s only just started now

I’m still passionate about the team and the small details ALEX McLEISH

THERE were unfounded rumours doing the rounds on Tuesday that win lose or draw against Israel that night Alex McLeish would be stepping away from his position with immediate effect.

That already he’d been broken down by the unrelenting abuse fired in his direction over these last 10 months of turbulence and traumas. That he’d had enough.

So as the media waited for him following the white-knuckle ride of a 3-2 victory that leaves the nation on the brink of a major tournament for the first time in more than 20 years, there was a feeling of curious anticipation at what drama might yet unfold.

With the clock going beyond half past 10 one thought kept reoccurring – who could blame him if when he eventually does come barrelling in through these doors he tells us all to ram it?

The backdrop to McLeish’s second stint in charge has been consistently toxic after all. Riddled with innuendos that he’s not quite the manager he used to be, laden with call-offs and suggestions of a dressing-room revolt all underpinned by feelings of resentment and ill will from the public at large.

Much of which, of course, can be traced directly back to his time in charge of Rangers and the angry notion the trophies he piled up during that time ought to be struck from the records and filed under financial doping.

Some attacks have been personal, some spiteful. And often they have veered way over and above being vicious. Even when old friends and colleagues have spoken up on his behalf there’s been a tendency to do so in a mealymouthed or halfhearted manner.

But it soon became very clear this is a man who plans on going nowhere. “I’ve only just started,” he blurted with incredulity when asked afterwards if those rumours from earlier in the day were true. “All I need is to be cut some slack!”

It’s easy to get where he’s coming from. Even at the weekend, after McLeish had overseen a magnificent romp in Albania, no sooner had he touched down back in Glasgow than one-time international team-mate Davie Provan was questioning the point in even attempting to qualify for the next major finals.

And while his words were largely sympathetic to McLeish’s plight, Provan suggested the boss may no longer be operating at the peak of his powers.

With friends like these McLeish, 59, hardly needs to go looking for enemies. But his refusal to wilt in the face of it all is both admirable and impressive. He said: “I’m more experienced than I was when Davie thinks I had my best years. I feed off that stuff – it makes me more determined to succeed.

“I take inspiration from the Roy Hodgsons of this world. I’m still passionate about the team and the small details and getting everything right. I’m at a stage now where I feel I can impart advice to guys who maybe haven’t heard it before at club level.”

Results and performances will ultimately determine the fate of almost all managers. These last two haven’t half helped bolster McLeish’s case. Team selections and tactics spot on, the manager clocked up back-to-back victories as exhilarating as they were crucial to Scotland’s cause.

Now he can look forward to a more traditional qualification campaign for the European Championship in the knowledge he already has a safety net in place and a serious shot at the play-offs. If there was a moment to cut the man some slack surely it is now?

And yet there’s this sense McLeish could go on from here to win the whole thing in 2020, follow it up by delivering a World Cup in Qatar and still never be accepted by a cross-section of supporters in this country who struggle to see beyond the boundaries of their own clubs.

He said: “I think we won them

over tonight. We celebrated with the fans. It’s something we haven’t done for a wee while. We put one foot in the door of the Euros. But we know there’s still work to be done.

“At the end of the day the only way you can get folk to support you is to win. We have won two in a row. Now the aim is to qualify from the group as well without the need for a play-off.

“We’ve got to target that. We can’t just rely on this play-off thing. We need to build on this momentum. We will lose players, and lose some good ones, at certain moments.

“That can obviously be difficult. It can be hard to keep the momentum and keep winning. But we believe the way we’ve come through these two games everybody will be desperate to come back and play for Scotland.”

Which, of course, has not always appeared to be the case during this difficult second spell in office. McLeish revealed a number of those players who were unavailable to him against Albania and Israel texted him with messages of support ahead of Tuesday night’s thriller.

And with the likes of Kieran Tierney and John McGinn among the casualties there is a chance here for the manager to capitalise and build on this unexpected momentum shift.

He added: “I spoke to a friend of mine and he said, ‘Where has Scotland’s confidence gone?’

And he didn’t just mean as a team, he meant as a nation. I thought, ‘Aye, let’s bloody try and big ourselves up’.

“Guys like Kieran and John were gutted to miss out. They were very keen to ignore the scans and come and play for Scotland. But there is no way we can allow those risks with the clubs.

”But they will be back and the challenge is for them to become Scottish greats.”

That same gauntlet has now been thrown at a few of these players.

The performances of James Forrest, Callum McGregor, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Fraser and even veterans Steven Fletcher and Allan McGregor suggest they are ready and willing to rise to it.

It could turn out to be the ultimate despite-all-odds Scotland story. And McLeish has only finished chapter one.