Martin’s turned jeers to cheers...

HE WAS booed on to the pitch earlier in this campaign but Chris Martin can now fantasise about securing his status as a Scotland hero after forcing the mistake that put his team’s destiny in their own hands at Hampden last night.

Scotland now head to Slovenia knowing victory will take them into the play-offs after Martin Skrtel’s own goal earned them a last ditch win over Slovakia.

It was pressure applied by Martin as both men stretched to get to Ikechi Anya’s cross that caused the former Liverpool defender’s blunder, but he was in no mood to take the credit.

“I’m sure I’ll dream about it between now and then, but everyone has contributed and I’m not going to try and claim the credit for what has been done here,” said Martin.

“You saw in my celebrations that I didn’t run off and try and claim it, but it meant a lot to us.

“Everyone has played their part, no matter big or small. Ultimately, though, we haven’t done anything yet. There is a massive game left and we need to make sure we get the result.

“It would be nice to finish it all off. There is a massive game now on Sunday and we’ll try to get a result. It gives us a chance to go to a World Cup, so it is going to be massive.

“We are under no illusions. There is half of the job done here, but it was a job well done.

“We know the job that is in hand. As a singular game, it’ll be as big as I’ve played in for Scotland.”

Martin reckoned they got their reward last night for maintaining both patience and belief as the clock ticked down on what had been a frustrating night that had seen Slovakian goalkeeper Martin Dubravka play a blinder, while the crossbar also saved the visitors twice in the second half.

He said: “We celebrated as a team because we were frustrated we didn’t take the lead earlier.

“We were unlucky not to score earlier” he said.

“When I came on, I always felt confident. We were getting plenty of ball forward and we were in and around their box. The key is we kept believing.”