‘Andy Robertson to be Scotland regular for years’

DARREN Jackson insists Andy Robertson will not display petulance after being dropped by Scotland manager Gordon Strachan for Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Poland.

Andy Robertson: Still learning. Picture: PA

Robertson’s omission in Warsaw with Steven Whittaker coming in sparked a lot of pre-match debate after his fine performance in the 1-0 win over Georgia last Saturday.

However, Dundee United first-team coach Jackson believes Strachan made the right call, while also backing his former charge Robertson to be Scotland’s left-back for the next 15 years.

He said: “Andy is still learning. Gordon left him out for a reason. Andy will take that in his stride.

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“And if you are asking who will be the Scotland left-back for the next ten to 15 years, I believe it will be Andy Robertson. The kid is that good.

“But Gordon obviously had a team in his mind. He had looked at videos and different things and decided to go with Steven Whittaker and he has got a result. Every fan will have his own idea, but he is the manager and he has got it right,

“It won’t affect Andy. He will be as happy as everyone else with the result. He will kick on to play for Hull at the weekend and look forward to future Scotland games.”

Jackson believes it has been a great start to the Euro 2016 campaign but has highlighted the huge importance of the next fixture on 14 November against Martin O’Neill’s Republic of Ireland.

He said: “Four points from the first three games is a great start. I think everyone took confidence from the first game against the world champions, even although it was a defeat, because they played very well.

“I worked with Gordon for two months at Coventry and he was fantastic, I know what he is like and his enthusiasm will rub off on the players.

“They will be well drilled and they will know what they are doing. Every one of them will know their jobs.

“I think the feelgood factor is back with everybody – the fans, the press – and everything is positive now rather than negative.

“The Republic game is huge. I don’t want to blow it out of proportion because it’s not win or bust, but winning that game would be a massive step towards where we want to go.

“I think it will be a great game with two teams going for it from start to finish,

“Ireland are just off the back of a fantastic result in Germany, so they will be up for it as well with a manager that knows the place really well.

“The eyes of Europe will be on this game. You’ve got everything in the one pot with two ex-Celtic managers facing each other at Parkhead.

“I didn’t realise it until Gordon said it, but when I looked around the other sections, he is right – there is no doubt it’s the hardest group.

“If we can come out of it – and I believe we can – then it will be an unbelievable achievement.”

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