Hearts’ Andy Webster calls on Tartan Army to keep the faith

By COLLEEN STRACHAN
Published on 10/09/2012 12:01

ANDY WEBSTER today urged the Tartan Army to remain upbeat despite Scotland opening their World Cup qualifying campaign with a goalless draw with Serbia at Hampden.

The Hearts defender played 90 minutes as Craig Levein’s men put in a decent performance against Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side in Glasgow but failed to convert a number of chances.

With Group A favourites Croatia and Belgium both winning, the Scots already face an uphill task if they are to progress from their group, and they go into tomorrow night’s clash with Macedonia playing catch-up just a game into the campaign.

Before kick-off, the widely-held perception was that Scotland had to take six points from their first two games if they were to have any hope of qualifying. They have failed to do that but Webster, while admitting that he and his team-mates were disappointed with the outcome against the Serbs, stressed the importance of focusing on the favourable aspects of the way Scotland played while also shrugging off suggestions that the Scots’ campaign is over 
after just one game.

Webster said: “I think that’s a negative outlook. We have played well as a team and just missed out on scoring the goal that we needed – and that is the hardest thing in football to do.

“Performance-wise it was definitely a positive and the only thing missing was a goal. From the way we played and the chances that we created, we were disappointed with the end result. Any time you’re playing home games you’re looking to win and, the chances we created, I think that we deserved a goal. We created a lot, looked a threat going forward and should probably have scored, but there are positives to take from that too.”