KEEP CALM AND KEEP THE FAITH

Tartan Army has to stick with us to turn the tide in our favour SAYS STEVEN NAISMITH

THE plan is to win both hearts and minds. Recapture the love of the Tartan Army, while convincing the hard-headed pragmatists to disregard the bare facts — and believe in a World Cup miracle.

The first part of the equation, getting supporters back onside to conjure up the magical atmosphere of so many campaigns past, shouldn’t be impossible.

This is Scotland. Even during our most despairing, frustrating, ‘never again — I’m finished with that lot of chancers’ phases, we’ve reserved the right to go gaga over any positive result for the national team.

Not that the rush of goodwill means we will completely ignore the raw data assembled against us, of course. Can anyone build a logical, unemotional, statistical and analytical argument in support of the idea that, starting from here, Gordon Strachan can end the year by guiding us to our first major finals appearance since 1998?

We’ll need help from our rivals. We’ll need, in short, Slovakia and/or Slovenia to do what Scotland did in the Euro 2016 qualifiers — throw away a good start to finish well out of the running. If it can happen to us …

Steven Naismith, whose Scotland career stretches all the way back to our tilt at making it to Euro 2008, is smart enough to recognise that regaining the faith of the fans is going to be key if we’re to make the sums add up.

‘Hopefully, the Slovenia win gets some supporters back behind the team,’ said the Norwich attacker, who maintained energy and movement up top following an injury to Leigh Griffiths in Sunday night’s dramatic 1-0 win at Hampden.

‘People might have written us off and thought the campaign was just going to peter out — but the result might change that.

‘No one can blame anyone (for writing us off) because the start of the campaign wasn’t good enough. That undoubtedly makes the job harder. But we’re still in the mix — and that’s what we need going forward.’

At the halfway point of the group, the fact that three of Scotland’s closing five games are at Hampden feels like a slight advantage. If even the best-case scenario involves us going to Lithuania on September 1 and Slovenia on October 8 needing wins, home ties with England, Malta and Slovakia are obviously key. And all winnable?

‘The home games will be crucial — and we need the atmosphere we’ve had in the past for our home games,’ said Naismith.

‘I know we played Ireland in the last campaign at Celtic Park, but that atmosphere is what we need. We need teams to come here and think: “Wow, we’re in a game here.”

‘Going forward, that’s what we need — and that will give us the best opportunity. As a group of players, we’ll go into the games believing that we can win. ‘It’s not so much more punters we need, just everyone that is there to get behind the team for the full game because that will make a difference. ‘People might think: “Ach, it’s just one more body …”, but everybody really does make a difference.’ You heard the man. Your country needs you. And not just for the England game on that sunny Saturday evening of June 10.

As for the possibility of our collective faith being rewarded, well, Naismith admits that Scotland can take an odd sort of encouragement from what happened in the last qualifying campaign — when a blistering start in the first half of our Euro 2016 group saw our boys sitting in perfect position to make it to France, only for a second-half flop to leave them in fourth place.

‘The last campaign for me was the biggest one I’ve been involved with in terms of being close and everyone half-starting to think we’re going to make it,’ added Naismith.

‘It slipped through our fingers. But we know we are still in this. We know from experience that a lot can happen in the second half of the group.

‘We delivered under pressure against Slovenia. The pressure was on, but that’s probably one thing this squad has got. We’ve not got superstars, but there are guys who believe in what they do.

‘As they have got older, they have understood that if we miss a chance and there is ten minutes to go, just keep doing the right things and you will get more chances. That showed in the latter stages against Slovenia.

‘It was job done. We dominated — but it’s a game we’d expect to dominate. It’s a win. We’ve played better. But it’s what we needed to do and we’ll move on now.

‘The victory should take away that bit of nervousness which surrounded the camp from when we met up — and, obviously, after the Canada game. It relieves a bit of that. The boys still believe. We’ve always believed.’