Scotland Under-21s head coach Scot Gemmill has full confidence in his players to put in a strong display against the Czech Republic at Tynecastle tonight in what is a crucial match in the bid for qualification.
Scotland could go just one point behind Czech Republic at the top of Group 4 with a victory after Allan Campbell’s winner in Lithuania led to a crucial three points in the bid for qualification.
Gemmill said: “I think it will be an intense and physical game on Friday. Over in the Czech Republic the game was very fast and they have difficult players that we have to make sure to try and contain, but that is the interesting bit for me, to see if our players can execute the game plan.
“I have a lot of trust in them to do that because they have shown consistently that they are willing to do that hard work and that they are conscious of what they need to do.
“I think it’s so important for the team to have that solidity and be hard to play against because if you want to be successful you have to be hard to beat.
“If you want to qualify at any level, that solidity and that nature of being hard to play against and conceding very few goals can be crucial, but it takes a lot of work to achieve that.
“There’s a game plan off the pitch as well as on it and I’m confident in all the staff involved with the Under-21s to keep doing such a good job during difficult circumstances to protect the health and wellbeing of our players. We went to Lithuania just over three weeks ago and all the staff executed the off-pitch game plan perfectly.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
