Scotland captain Andy Robertson has urged the country to get behind the national team again and start spreading a more positive message.
The build-up to their final Uefa Nations League victories against Albania and Israel was mired with talk of players who may or may not want to play for Scotland, with nine players pulling out through injury and various others declaring their unavailability.
That negativity has not gone unnoticed by Robertson, the Liverpool full-back who was named captain by Alex McLeish, and he feels the players have done a good job in blocking that out.
He said: “It’s been a good week. There’s been a lot of negativity outwith us and we’ve had to block that out. This has been a tough year, of course it has, but it ends on a high.
“When this group came out our objective was to finish top and we’ve done that. We’ve done it really well the last two games.
“That’s the positive and it gets everyone behind the nation again because it makes it easier when everyone is pulling in the same direction.”
Israel head coach Andi Herzog, meanwhile, bemoaned his side’s inability to hold on to their early lead in last night’s 3-2 defeat at Hampden.
The Israelis, who needed just a point to win Group C1, made the perfect start through Beram Kayal’s stunning strike, however they could not prevent the fightback from Alex McLeish’s men.
Having been encouraged by his side’s start, former Austria international Herzog was disappointed his side squandered their winning position.
Herzog said: “The first 25 minutes was exactly what we trained in the last couple of days. But after that we lost control. Scotland took over and put more and more pressure on us and they got more confidence. The big problem for us was we got too deep.”
