Houston urges Tartan Army to do their bit as national team bids to bring the country alive

THREE o’clock on a Saturday, Hampden Park. The kick-off time alone is enough to make traditionalists swoon as more than 50,000 gear up to attend Scotland’s most crucial match since the agonising defeat to Italy in November 2007.

Assistant manager Peter Houston yesterday called on fans to get behind the team this weekend against the Czech Republic, although where the Tartan Army are concerned this can be taken as read. No-one wants to miss the must-win match, hence the sell-out. Included in the number of those desperate to be a part of the occasion are the players. Houston yesterday described as “almost unique” the call-off count, which then stood at zero.

Goalkeeper Iain Turner, a goal hero at the weekend after his kick-out sailed into the net against Notts County, has since had to return to Preston North End to receive treatment for an arm injury. But he is the only one to have dropped out from a determined and contented squad, one aiming to give the throng of expectant fans the win required this weekend.

Three points would keep Scotland’s hopes of qualifying for Euro 2012 via a play-off place very much alive, with Lithuania next to be hosted at Hampden on Tuesday. Houston spoke about lifting the gloom that has descended on Scottish football since last week’s hat-trick of exits from European football.

His own club, Dundee United, had been ejected from the party even earlier. “The thing that we do need is the backing of the fans,” added Houston. “It’s a sell-out, there’s no tickets left for anybody. And it’s three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. I appreciate TV dictates a lot financially and we need their money, but, in my opinion, it’s when football should be played. We have played for a 100 years at 3pm on a Saturday.”

Fewer crunch international matches are scheduled for this time these days and Scotland hope to make the most of the opportunity to perform at what Houston believes is the optimum time for football. Scotland have passion on their side, and Houston is confident that they also have the technique.

“The players are very skilled at keeping the ball,” he said. “That’s been a failing in the past, not keeping it enough against other international teams. Now what we need is the whole country to get right behind the team. Even if we were to lose a goal early doors, we need them [the fans] to not get on our backs. We’ll have a team who will work their socks off. That’s a given. But I also think with the group of players that we have got, playing in the Premiership and some of them in the SPL as well, they are more and more comfortable with the retention of the ball.”

Houston used as illustration the winning goal in the last match against Denmark, when a sweeping move led to Robert Snodgrass’s headed winner. “These are things that don’t just happen, they are things Craig [Levein] has worked on,” he said.

“Some of the passing on a horrible night on a wet surface was better than you would think,” he added, again with reference to the Denmark match. “When you watch it again you say to yourself: ‘Wait a minute! That’s good possession of the ball when people are putting you under pressure.’

“We are more confident in our own ability, and in the shape of the team and how we play now. And I think the players also now know what type of manager they have got, and how he likes to play, and if you pass the ball around then he’s happy.”

The assistant manager admitted that Petr Czech’s absence is a “bonus” for Scotland, with the Chelsea goalkeeper having sustained a medial ligament injury in training.

“They [Czech Republic] don’t play many other goalkeepers – he seems to play all the time, and right away that’s a wee head start for us,” said Houston.

Czech Republic head coach Michal Bilek will now have to choose between Hamburg’s Joroslav Drobny, Jan Lastuvka of Dnepropetrovsk and Pribram’s Ales Hruska.