Greer: Patience could be key

Pic: Jeff Holmes

Scotland defender Gordon Greer has moved to dampen down expectations ahead of the European Championships qualifier against Gibraltar at Hampden Park on Sunday.

UEFA's newest member are bottom of Group D after four matches with no points and have shipped 21 goals including seven in the matches against Poland and Republic of Ireland, without getting off the mark themselves.

The Brighton player, however, tried to allay any assumptions of a goal fest and believes patience could be key.

He said: "I think the pressure that is on us now is to break them down and score the goals because other teams have done that but ultimately it is all about just winning the game.

"Obviously, if you score a lot of goals in front of your home fans and everything is great then it is a perfect afternoon.

"But these players are no mugs and for me it is all about winning the game and moving on.

"It will be a difficult game and difficult to break them down and we are preparing as best we can.

"The squad has watched bits and pieces on video.

"Obviously they were playing against some good opposition. They put men behind the ball in the Germany game, the same against Ireland and Poland, so I think it will be much the same on Sunday.

"You have 90 plus minutes in a game so at the end of the day when the final whistle goes you just want to have three points and hopefully the team puts on a good performance.''

Gordon Strachan's side go into the game on the back of a 1-0 friendly win over Northern Ireland at Hampden on Wednesday night where it took an 85th minute header by substitute Christophe Berra to separate the teams.

Greer believes playing against such a stuffy side as the Irish were on the night was ideal preparation for a much more important game.

"The game the other night was a good test for us going in to the Gibraltar game,'' he said.

"At times we struggled to break them down in the final third but we will do our best to break Gibraltar down as early as possible.''