MARSHALL WANTS A QUALI-FLYER

David Marshall knows Scotland must get their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign off to a flyer after blowing the chance of a backdoor route to Qatar.

Wednesday night’s 1-0 defeat by Israel – and the Czech Republic’s victory over Slovakia – denied Scotland promotion to the Nations League A section.

That would have resulted in a probable play-off place for the World Cup if the Scots fail to progress from their qualifying group.

Marshall admits it was a disappointing climax to an international break that kicked off with the massive high of last Thursday’s dramatic Euro 2020 play-off triumph against Serbia.

He said: “If anything, it’s a reminder of how far we’ve come and how hard we need to work to be competitive in these games.

“We’ve missed that chance but we have come an awful long way.

“It’s a bit of a strange week, in terms of the play-off being the first game.

“We’re disappointed with the results in the other two games. But, on the whole, especially in the Slovakia game, we played really well.

“The draw is in December for the World Cup so we can focus on that.”

James McFadden, meanwhile, insists Scotland cannot allow a disappointing end to the Nations League campaign to detract from the achievement of reaching Euro 2020.

Former national team forward and coach McFadden saw enough positives from the consecutive setbacks to continue to be encouraged by how the team are evolving.

He said: “It’s hugely disappointing not to finish off as group winners but we need to be positive.

“After the week we’ve had, we can’t say, ‘let’s pick holes and look through all the negative stuff’. We need to be positive, we created enough chances against Israel but it was not our night in front of goal.”