Scott Walker Column

Published 17 Feb 2010 11:03 0 Comments

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(Pic David Robertson)

HOME wins against Cowdenbeath and East Fife have taken us to the top of the league and the challenge now is to stay there.

I felt last Tuesday's victory against the Blue Brazil was thoroughly deserved as we played some really good stuff and created plenty of good chances.

That result put us top and gave us a lot of confidence for the visit of East Fife, which was a hard game. The Fifers didn't come to shut up shop and played an offensive game which put us under pressure at times. They had the better of the opening exchanges but we played well in the second half and our quality won through in the end.

This season we have players who can capitalise on half chances and Stuart Noble did just that with his two goals against Stevie Crawford's team. Stuart has benefited from Bryan Prunty's arrival at the club. The pair played together at Airdrie and that shows in the understanding they have.

Striker David Gormley is also getting back to full fitness after arriving from Ayr United and that competition up front and across all positions will stand us in good stead for the run in.

We are now unbeaten in eight in the league and it is a run of results that has given us a different outlook. I'm not trying to sound cocky, but we know we are good enough to win this league and will go all out to get over that finishing line.

Now that we are sitting at the summit we know other teams will naturally up their game against us because we are there to be shot at. Opposition managers will tell their players to go out and show that they are better than us; we will have to be ready for that.

The management team gave us Tuesday night off this week from training and the rest has been good for us physically and psychologically. When we get back in their tonight (Thursday) we will be ready for a sharp session.

Turning to the national team, we now know who Scotland will face in the qualifiers for Euro 2012: Spain, Czech Republic, Lithuania (again) and Lichtenstein.

Looking at the group you have to say Spain are the favourites, but I think we have a good chance of qualifying for the play-offs. I feel in Craig Levein we have the right man for the job. He can take us forward.

The friendly in March at home to the Czech Republic will give the Scottish public a chance to see how well we might do and hopefully we'll get two or three more games before the qualifiers begin to build up some confidence.

It might be a good idea for Craig to arrange some games against the so-called lesser teams in a bid to get some wins and the confidence that goes with winning football matches.

When the qualifiers do begin, I'd like to see us get Spain away first and get that over and done with then maybe the Czechs at Hampden.

Another positive - before a ball is kicked - is that Craig has a good relationship with the media and is unlikely to face the same problems George Burley had with them.

I do hope, though, they continue to give him a chance and are constructive if a few games don't go our way.

Next week, I'll give you my reaction to the Cowdenbeath game, and continuing the Scotland theme, tell you whether I think players who chose not to play under Burley should be welcomed back to the team.

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