Scotland captain Andy Robertson felt togetherness on the pitch was key to their comeback against Greece – and believes unity in the stands can help drive them forward against Belarus.
Scotland were outplayed by Greece before Kostas Tsimikas opened the scoring in the 62nd minute, but Steve Clarke’s side ended up 3-1 winners to maintain their promising start to the World Cup qualifiers.
Sitting level on seven points with Group C leaders Denmark, Clarke’s side now host a Belarus team who have conceded 13 goals in their opening three qualifiers, two of them against Scotland.
With goal difference potentially crucial in the four-team group, fans will be looking for an emphatic win and Robertson knows it will be a huge help to have the Hampden roar at full blast from the start.
“We hope that the Tartan Army were happy going home,” the left-back said. “Obviously there were frustrations in the stands at times, but everyone’s dancing at the end of the game and a game’s 90 minutes, not 60.
“It was a massive result and I think you could feel that in the stands and you could also feel it on the pitch.
“But it’s only a massive result if we then kick on from here. So we’re in control of that and we need to do that.
“Like I said, the fans were clearly frustrated the first 60 minutes, which I can understand and I can get, but sometimes it doesn’t help.
“But after their goal went in I thought they were magnificent. Once we started doing the things that we should have been doing from the start and putting pressure on them and getting bodies in the box, getting corners, getting set-pieces, and we know we’re a threat from them, then the fans got behind us.
“They helped us over the line and they helped us get our noses in front and then the third goal meant they could enjoy it.
“So we’re going to need them again Sunday. Sunday’s a completely different test and we’re going to need everyone in full voice because we’ve got three games now to try and qualify for a World Cup and we need everyone pulling in the same direction.
“If they can give us noise in the stands and cheer us on and support us then it’s only going to help us.
“But we also know that we need to react on the pitch to that and we need to be better than we were for 60 minutes. But I think the fans are always happy when they go home with three points.”
Ryan Christie quickly equalised on Thursday and Lewis Ferguson’s first goal for Scotland put the home side ahead with 10 minutes left as Scotland made their set-piece threat count.
Lyndon Dykes capitalised on a goalkeeping blunder to round off a victory which leaves Greece in danger of being cast adrift.
Robertson said: “The boys on the pitch stuck together and we just kept believing that we could cause them problems.
“It felt as if when they scored it actually kind of took the shackles off us a little bit, which we need to address because we need to be better when it’s at 0-0. It’s clear we have to be better. We’re not stupid.
“We came in the changing room and we’re all buzzing with the result, but we also know how frustrated we were on the pitch. So it’s up to us to try and put that right, be better on the ball, be better off the ball.”
