The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Strachan’s desire remains ‘red hot’
McGhee insists fire is still burning for World Cup campaign
Gordon Strachan is still “red-hot” for managing Scotland as they kick-off their World Cup qualifying campaign.
That was the bold message from his assistant Mark McGhee as the pair prepared the team to face Malta in the first of the Group F qualifiers at the Ta’ Qali Stadium tomorrow night.
Comments have been made and words written questioning whether or not Strachan has the enthusiasm to see out another attempt to reach a major finals after the failure to get to the Euros in France.
However, McGhee insists the fire is still burning inside the national coach. “He is 100% up for this,” insisted McGhee. “Indeed, he has been champing at the bit. “Over the last three or four weeks I have been ignoring his calls!
“I have had to tell him that I have a job to do outside of Scotland,” added the Motherwell gaffer. “He is red hot for it. “He always gets energised when he sees the players train and show the attitude they have done.
“The other day we had a training session that was split into three teams of six.
“My six won convincingly, I have to say, but Gordon’s enthusiasm for it is as it ever was.”
McGhee insists it is wrong to suggest there is negativity around the national set-up despite having to endure watching England, Wales and Northern Ireland in France while the Scots sat at home.
“I don’t feel any of that,” he said. “This is a fresh start.
“We’ve got a squad with an average age that’s down to 26, with young players who have the chance to play in a World Cup qualifying campaign.
“For me it’s all positive and Gordon is a hugely-experienced manager.”
Steven Naismith has admitted time is running out for him to star in a major tournament for Scotland.
The frontman knows that only a convincing win against Malta will provide some real hope that the Scots can reach the World Cup finals in Russia in 2018.
That journey starts with the opening Group F qualifier at the Ta’ Qali Stadium tomorrow night and Naismith knows he can’t risk another failure like the one that left Gordon Strachan’s men at home as the rest partied at the Euros in France.
Miss out this time and that could be that, as far as the Norwich City man is concerned.
“It is definitely in your head that you have been around for a while,” said Naismith, whose first cap came in a 2-0 win away to the Faroe Islands in June 2007 as a late substitute for Kris Boyd.
“When I look at the squad and the amount of boys who have changed I do think back to when I started.
“I realise time is running out. You just hope this campaign can be a good one.
“I will sit back at the end of the campaign and think: ‘Is it right for me to continue?’
“It will depend on whether or not I am playing and how I am feeling in terms of my body.
“Looking back, although we ended up in a bad place after the Euros I still think there was progress.
“We had a meeting after the campaign and addressed a few things that we need to change.
“When you look at the rest of the home nations and how well they did at the Euros then it gives you a buzz in terms of trying to get there yourselves.
“It is going to be difficult and the hard work starts now in Malta.
“For me, watching the start of the Euros my reaction was: ‘Oh for God’s sake.’
“However, as the tournament went on and I watched a lot of my mates and clubmates doing well I started to think: ‘This is amazing and I want to be part of it.’
“When you hear the stories from there afterwards then there is a bit of jealousy.
“Ever since we met up this week with Scotland the thinking has been that we need to get a chance to do it.
“A few of us are not going to get any more chances.”
The 4,500 or so members of the Tartan Army inside the Ta’ Qali will be expecting the Maltese to be beaten – and rightly so.
Naismith gets that but he stressed the opposition will be shown respect by Gordon Strachan’s men.
“Everybody will look at this fixture and think we should win,” said the former Rangers and Everton frontman. “But we will not be taking it lightly. “We showed in the big games during the last campaign we can challenge.
“It was probably the Georgia game away that did us in.
“That was a game we were favourites in.
“For us starting off with Malta you need to win as that could be the difference between qualifying or not even this early on.
“We need to keep the standards high as we need to get off to a good start and learn our lessons from the Georgia game.
“Let’s hope we can get a good result and then build some momentum and go from there.
“There are definitely some very tough games in there, but with the experience we have there are no excuses about not being able to compete.
“If you are competing in every game you are going to have a chance of winning at one stage.
“Let’s just hope we can turn up on the day and be good enough.”
Given that Malta have never won a home qualifying game in 46 attempts over four decades of trying, the expectation is that the hosts will sit back and hand the initiative to the likes of Naismith.
He said: “They have their style and it is our job to break them down.
“This is one of those games where we need to start at a good tempo and be quite aggressive in our attacks.
“When the chances come along, we need to look to take them. In these games, the first goal can be important.
“I go back to the Georgia game where the first goal was massively important because they could just sit off and slow the game down.
“It worked for them and we can’t let that happen this time.”