McGhee: Win the rest or we’re done
MARK McGhee has laid it on the line for Scotland – any more slip ups and your World Cup dream is over.
Gordon Strachan’s righthand man admits the national team must end their qualifying campaign with four straight wins if they are to have any hope of reaching Russia next summer.
The Scots sit fourth in Group F and McGhee believes only a perfect 12 points from 12 will give them a chance of sneaking past rivals Slovakia and Slovenia to clinch second behind unbeaten leaders England.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with Lithuania in Vilnius, McGhee said: “We simply can’t afford any more mistakes. That is the position we’re in and there’s no hiding.
“I’m not going to sit here and say,”’Oh if they slip up and we do this or that we might have a chance’.
“I think we have to assume we have to win all four games, so we’ll roll our sleeves up starting on Friday night.”
But while Strachan’s men face an uphill struggle to climb back onto the kind of major stage they have not graced since 1998, McGhee reckons the fixture list does provide them with scope to built up momentum.
McGhee said: “We will have to work out what is going to work out best against Lithuania - but then apply it with the same energy and enthusiasm we showed against England.
“Nothing changes in that sense. We set a standard against England and there is no excuse for us not to bring that same determination to any other performance, regardless of the tactics or the set-up.
“The starting point has to be a determination to work harder than the opposition.”