Bannan urges Scots to adopt Irish way of success

BARRY BANNAN has urged Scotland to ‘do a Republic of Ireland’ by plundering points off the top seeds to revive qualifying hopes.

On the way to Euro 2016, Martin O’Neill’s men lost in Glasgow then could only draw their home game against Scotland.

However, a remarkable four points against world champions Germany saw them soar above Scotland and secure the play-off berth from which they advanced past BosniaHerzegovina.

The highest-ranked Group F nation, England, are next up for stuttering Scotland and Bannan believes they can be toppled.

‘I think, in the last campaign, I felt we were going to be stronger than Ireland to begin with,’ noted Bannan.

‘Then they picked up results in games where no one gave them a chance. So we might have to do what Ireland did to us.

‘You can see with Ireland and Germany that no one is unbeatable. No one thought they could do that. We are going to need a big result.

‘And there’s no reason why that can’t be us by going to Wembley and getting points there, no reason why we can’t go and win.

‘Playing at Wembley against our rivals is massive for all of us who love representing Scotland. Everyone wants to play in games like that.

‘We’ve made it hard for ourselves. But still the group is really open. There’s only three points between us and England. It’s going to be full of ups and downs.

‘The two results we’ve had recently are not great at all but we’re still in there.’

Bannan’s most recent visit to Wembley was a 1-0 defeat to Hull City as Sheffield Wednesday lost out on promotion to the Premier League in May.

‘The last time I was there was the play-off final, so there would be no happier way to better that than go on and beat England,’ he said.