We’ve Nai-ver had it so good!
STEVEN NAISMITH believes Scotland are in their best shape since Craig Levein took over as manager as they aim to kick off their World Cup qualifying campaign with maximum points at Hampden.
The Scots play host to Serbia on Saturday before facing Macedonia three days later at the same venue.
Naismith is confident the national team is as ready to deliver the goods now as they have been since Levein replaced George Burley at the helm in December 2009.
He said: “Nobody can deny there has been a lot of progress made from where the national squad was before he took over.
“We’ve all now had experience in qualifiers.
“It’s not as though we are a new squad coming together, we’ve been together for a while now, which goes a long way.
“Now we need to turn it into performances at the qualifying stage, not just doing it in friendlies.
“We need to show we are capable and that what the manager has been working towards has paid off.”
Tough
Scotland face a tough group, which also includes Belgium, Wales and Croatia.
But the Everton midfielder added: “We are confident. The group is going to be tough but we think we can get results.
“There is enough experience along with youth in the squad to compete against anyone.
“You’ve got to be confident. If you’re not then you shouldn’t be in the squad.”
The Tartan Army will be after six points from the opening two games.
Naismith is well aware of the demands for success but believes the national team are in decent form following last month’s friendly win over Australia.
He said: “In the home games there is always pressure.
Competed
“Since I’ve been in the squad we have shown up well in the home games, we’ve competed and we’ve probably been the better team against most. It’s just about turning them into wins.
“The manager will have sat down and gone through every fixture, knowing where he wants every win ideally.
“I’m sure he will want the two home games at the start.
“You always want to get off to a good start.
“Looking at the fixtures, I don’t think you can get better than the two home games, to have the fans behind you and hopefully get a good start.
“We showed last month that we’ve got a good squad who are competing with each other to get in that starting 11.
“We will go into the game confident and hopefully we can get the three points.”