Scotland set Nations League standard against Albania, says Robertson
Alex McLeish's men cruised to a 2-0 win in their group opener
Skipper Andy Robertson believes Scotland set the Nations League play-off standard in their 2-0 win over Albania at Hampden Park on Monday night.
Alex McLeish's side had suffered a deflating 4-0 home friendly defeat by World Cup semi-finalists Belgium on Friday and there was some subsequent doom and gloom surrounding the national side.
However, the Scots responded positively in their opening Group C1 fixture with Steven Naismith forcing an own goal from defender Berat Xhimshiti two minutes after the break before the Hearts attacker, a late call-up to the squad, headed in a second.
Scotland's next fixture in a three-team group which allows little margin for error is away to Israel on October 11 and the Liverpool left-back is looking for more of the same in the search for top spot and a play-off place.
He said: "It was a massive difference from Friday. Belgium are a top team and we struggled and did make mistakes but we dominated right from the start (against Albania) and that is a positive for us.
"It was all about trying to start the campaign well and thankfully we have managed it.
"There is always that pressure when you start a new campaign that you want to get off to a good start and luckily we managed that.
"They beat Israel (1-0) so that is us top of the group which is good after one game.
"But there are still three massive games to go so if we can take that tempo and attitude into the next three then we are confident that we can come out on top.''
The former Queen's Park, Dundee United and Hull player revealed boss McLeish played a pivotal part'' in refocusing the minds of the Scotland squad following the Belgium defeat.
He said: "Obviously it was a heavy defeat and you never like getting beat.
"But this is football, you can't dwell on results. If you dwell on results you end up going on a run of bad results and we knew we couldn't do that.
"So as soon as Friday was over, the lads had to focus on Monday.
"The gaffer played a big part in that and managed to focus us on this big game and this was the biggest game out of the two and to end on a positive is always nice.'