Andy Robertson says Scotland must be wary of foreigners' gamesmanship, as he slams Lithuania's antics

That’s why he didn’t react badly to the gamesmanship of Edgaras Jankauskas’s players at Hampden, although it’s fair to say he had a harder time disguising his anger about it once he had left the field.

He grudgingly accepts though that outside the British Isles, and increasingly within them, that play-acting and time-wasting has become part of the game, and he says that Scotland must be wise to it.

That’s not to say he condones such antics, but he believes that Scotland mustn’t rise to the bait if Slovakia also resort to the dark arts in tonight’s huge Group F clash.

“They were play-acting and they were rolling about the ground when there was nothing up with them,” Robertson said.

“I think the whole of Britain probably doesn’t buy into that really. When you’re playing in the Premier League and coming up against English players you know they are going to be kind of honest and they probably aren’t going to play-act, but then when you come up against a foreigner they do go down very easily.

“I think about 10 of them got cramp at one point, so it’s very frustrating. You just have to try to concentrate and let the ref do his job and add on the time required.

“I think the ref did that [against Lithuania] but it was a wee bit frustrating with him. I think he was a wee bit whistle-happy and he was giving fouls for any contact, especially in their box.

“But that’s what he thought was right, and we’ve got to respect that. We didn’t get frustrated which is good from our point of view.

“It’s quite easy to start moaning at the ref and start losing your head, or start pushing them and causing wee rammys here and there which you don’t really need.

“Luckily we got on with it, and we ended up getting the goal which made them stop it and go for the win as well, which was a wee bit surprising.

“It was a frustrating night, but we did have chances to win the game.”

Frustration was the key word all around Hampden in the aftermath of Scotland’s demoralising showing against the Lithuanians, but the spirit they showed to fight back for a point provided a crumb of comfort.

While disappointed with the overall performance, Robertson is hoping that the Scots can carry the momentum of their rousing finish into the match in Trnava this evening.

“The boys were frustrated at the end, but probably with 10 minutes to go we would have taken a draw,” he said.

“They had eleven men behind the ball and rightly so, if you’re one-nil up at Hampden playing against us then you’re trying to hold on to the three points.

“Luckily we managed to break them down though and James [McArthur] has popped up at the right time in the right place.

“Big Grant [Hanley] had a good chance at the end so it could easily have been a 2-1 and we’re talking about how well we came back, and on another night we take our chances and win quite comfortably.

“But we move on. At the end of the group we might look back on that and say we battled hard there and that was a good point.

“Scoring so late on pumps you up and all the boys were trying to stay positive in the changing room there because we’ve got such a quick turnaround for the game on Tuesday."

Despite the general disenchantment that has greeted Scotland’s latest result, there may be a case to say that our opponents this evening come into the game under an even darker cloud.

Slovakia’s defeat to Slovenia leaves them without a point or a goal from their two games so far, and Robertson is hoping that the Scots can pile further pressure onto their shoulders.

“Slovakia got beaten again so they’ll be trying to pick themselves up as well and get their performance right,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say we could kill them off because there’s such a long way to go, but if they’ve got zero points or one point from three games then it probably will be tough for them. Especially being second seeds, probably nobody was expecting this from them.

“We’re still sitting second on four points, and yeah, we could argue that it should be six and we should be joint with England, but second with four points we’ll take just now, and hopefully that will be more on Tuesday.”

Apart from maybe Chris Martin up front, Robertson was the Scotland player whose place had been the subject of most discussion in the lead up to the Lithuania game.

That wasn’t due to any doubts over Robertson’s quality, but more the competition being provided in the left-back area by Kieran Tierney, and to a lesser extent, Lee Wallace.

He passed that close examination with flying colours though, picking up the man of the match award, and he hopes he has done enough to keep his jersey.

“That’s up to the manager, I wouldn’t answer that, but it’s great to compete with the lads,” he said.

“Lee and Kieran have done well in training, and I think I’ve done well in training, and I thank the gaffer for showing faith in me and sticking by me when he could easily have changed it.

“I’ve got to thank him and hopefully he was happy with my performance.”