Robertson eyeing qualification for France

Andy Robertson senses the whole Scotland squad is united in their quiet determination to end their long absence from a major finals.

The Hull left-back, at the age of 21, is too young to remember Scotland's last appearance on the big stage, the 1998 World Cup finals in France.

Possibly because of that lengthy hiatus, talk of another trip across the English Channel for next summer's European Championship is kept to a minimum among Gordon Strachan's men.

Scotland are on course in their qualification bid having beaten Georgia and Republic of Ireland at home, and drawn in Poland and Dublin, but other results have made their goal even harder to attain ahead of their latest Group D clash in Tbilisi on Friday night.

So the focus is on the task in hand rather than thinking about what might lie in store next June.

Robertson said: "It's not really like you talk about it as such, but all the boys know that we want to get Scotland back in the big competitions. That's all the boys' aim in that squad just now.

"We don't talk about who we're sharing a room with in France and things like that.

"But obviously we all want to get there and you can see that when you are talking to all the boys - everyone wants to go to the one place.''

Poland's two wins over Georgia, and the Republic's last-gasp victory in Tbilisi, mean Scotland could find themselves behind if they fail to collect three points on Friday, but their form would give them every hope of making up lost points in successive Hampden contests against Germany and Poland.

"Every game is important now and all the boys are just excited to be back with the squad,'' Robertson said.

"Like the gaffer has said all along, we have never known what game was the must-win game, but one of them definitely will be. We will only know that by the end of the group.

"We are trying to win it and hopefully we get the three points and that's another big push towards where we want to go.

"It does have the must-win feel about it but, just because we are getting to the end of the group, every game has that feel about it, and I'm sure that's the same for all the countries involved. I think it will be like that for the next four games.''

Up to 55,000 fans could gather in the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena on Friday as the hosts look for a morale boost following a poor campaign so far.

Scotland coach Mark McGhee feels the home supporters have been hyped up by a squad and manager confident they are on the right track to improvement.

Robertson said: "It could be intimidating but I'm sure the Scotland fans will make plenty of noise like they always do and that might help us a bit. They always make a lot of noise.

"We don't know what to expect until we get over there but I'm sure we will deal with it.''