Only wins will do and Scotland goalkeeper David Marshall knows the importance of reviving a stuttering World Cup qualifying campaign with victory in Slovakia this evening.
Gordon Strachan’s players have taken four points from the opening two matches against the bottom two seeds in Group F with the impressive 5-1 win in Malta followed by Saturday’s dire 1-1 draw against Lithuania.
The Hampden stalemate has heaped pressure on manager Strachan, who needs a win from tonight’s match in Trnava.
Slovakia have made a worse start to qualifying with no points after two matches and Hull City goalkeeper Marshall believes it’s time to pile the misery on manager Jan Kozak’s men.
He said: “There was disappointment after dropping points on Saturday, but there is no reason why we can’t get a result if we play well.
“We know we have to win the vast majority of our home games to get to the finals.
“But in this group it looks like there are going to be a lot of teams taking points off each other.
“In the last campaign we had one game that hurt us when we lost 1-0 in Georgia.
“We just hope that in the away games where people expect us to get draws we can maybe pick up all three points.
“Everybody looks at Slovakia as being a big challenge for second place in the group, but no one knows what will happen.
“They will be looking for a reaction after two defeats but we must try to get the win.”
Marshall wants a happier return to Slovakia than when he went there in 2005 with Celtic in Strachan’s first game in charge of the Hoops.
The Celts suffered one of their most embarrassing results in their history with a 5-0 defeat by Artmedia Bratislava on their way to an early exit from the Champions League qualifiers, despite winning the return leg 4-0 at Parkhead.
Marshall said: “As a Celtic player and supporter, I don’t think there was a much worse experience than that.
“I hope it is a bit better this time. As the manager told us after the game on Saturday, a win against Slovakia would put us right back up there.
“Slovakia will be under pressure after the start they have made and will try to bounce back.
“Hopefully we can start the game well because the first goal is going to be important – it is in any match but especially in this game.”
