Kenny McLean remains hopeful Scotland’s start to their World Cup qualifying campaign has not left them with too much to do to reach next year’s finals in Qatar.
The Scots have started with two draws against Austria and Israel in a group in which only the winners qualify automatically, with the runners-up entering the play-offs.
Steve Clarke’s men will look to record their first victory of the campaign when they host Faroe Islands tonight, with group pacesetters Denmark facing second placed Austria.
Norwich City midfielder McLean is frustrated not to have more points on the board but he feels a victory at Hampden Park tonight could reignite their push to reach another major tournament following this summer’s European Championships.
McLean said: “We understand it because the expectation has been raised and rightly so. We have mentioned the quality we have got and we expect more from ourselves every day.
“The nation expects us to be qualifying and rightly so. We’ve just shown we can do it.
“So we just need to be consistent with it and that’s the big thing. It’s hard in football, but it’s down to us to do that. It’s tough and it’s not going to be easy.
“It’s not been the ideal start, but we go into every game wanting to win it. We haven’t managed to do so in the first couple of games, but we’ll try and take care of this and see where we stand.
“We went into the Austria game wanting to get the three points and we couldn’t get the three points.
“But we didn’t allow Austria to get the three points so that’s a good thing.
“It’s the same with Israel, we went there to win. It’s a tough group but we are confident we can get out of it. We need to be confident. We need to stand by each other and hope we continue to get the backing of the nation as they have done excellently recently.
“If we get the three points we could be sitting in an okay position with more to come.”
The Faroes are ranked 107th in the world but have shown improvement in recent years, and had taken the lead before going down 3-1 to Austria on Sunday.
The Scots previously fell victim to a humiliating result against tonight’s opponents, clawing back from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw in Toftir under Berti Vogts in 2002.
McLean feels Ireland’s 1-0 loss to Luxembourg on Saturday should act as a warning sign for his side, with the 29-year-old adding: “We know that we are favourites to win the game and we cannot hide from that fact, but we can’t underestimate anyone at this level.
“The Faroe Islands will make it hard for us and be hard to beat, so it is up to us and it’s down to how we approach the game, our mentality and doing the right things.
“We know we have the quality in abundance, so it’s up to us in the manner we approach the game and, hopefully, we can take care of it.
“We’ve seen slip ups in the past, we’ve seen them this week. As I said, we can’t hide from the fact we are massive favourites, but it’s down to approach.
“If we approach the game in the right manner, then I’m confident we can get the job done. But it’s never that straightforward, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Former Aberdeen player McLean is on course to return to the Premier League next season, with club side Norwich top of the Championship with eight games remaining.
With the Euros lying in wait this summer, McLean hopes to cap a successful period on a personal level.
He added: “That’s the plan. I am only looking at what we can influence right now and that’s this game. The other stuff is for looking back on afterwards. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself.
“But hopefully I can finish the season strongly when I get back to Norwich, win the league there and go to the Euros and be successful.”
