Former Scotland manager Gordon Strachan thinks McLeish's side's Nations League success will help to bring the fans back.
Wednesday 21 November 2018 08:41, UK
Darren Fletcher says the positivity is back for Scotland after back-to-back wins against Albania and Israel secured UEFA Nations League promotion along with a play-off spot for Euro 2020.
A 4-0 win in Albania set up a winner-takes-all clash with Israel on Tuesday evening and James Forrest's stunning hat-trick at Hampden Park sealed a 3-2 win to ensure the Scots won Group C1 and promotion to second tier of the Nations League.
And Fletcher thinks Alex McLeish's side should gain a lot of confidence from their Nations league success.
"McLeish realised there was pressure building," Fletcher told Sky Sports. "The result in Israel was a disaster because the friendly games were difficult.
"The formation wasn't working. Forrest couldn't play because they were playing in that particular formation and they went to Israel and suffered a really bad defeat, which could have been even worst but for Allan McGregor. He kept the score down that night.
"But we've got a change of formation, a couple of wins and the positivity is back.
"You can see the relief and what it means to the manager," the Scotland midfielder added. "And he is right, in the four competitive games he's had they've won three and qualified out of this group.
"Scotland would have expected to win this group though. We've made it a little bit more difficult but we got there in the end.
"It's fantastic and hopefully it gives us a lot of confidence going forward."
Before the game against Israel McLeish called on the Tartan Army to pack out Hampden Park in a bid to help the players in their bid to secure top spot in Group C1.
However, there were still plenty of empty seats as Scotland sealed a win that also secured a Pot 3 seeding in next month's Euro 2020 qualifying draw.
And former Scotland manager Gordon Strachan thinks McLeish's side's Nations League progress will help to bring the fans back.
"I'm sure they will and the games will be more attractive as well, that's for sure," he told Sky Sports.
"We were expected to get out of this group. Alex will sit back and say that was tough but the pressure was on because of the rankings of the teams in that group.
"It's been done now and it's out of the way. Now we go forward and play a different level of team."
