Stephen McManus insists Scotland's late-late 2-1 victory against Liechtenstein was down to character rather than luck. The Middlesbrough player said: "It wasn't luck - you just need to keep going and keep going and keep going. If you score in the last minute it's lucky, if you score in the first minute it's good play.
"It doesn't matter when you score, as long as you get the goals. I think it was definitely down to character rather than luck."
McManus also netted against Lithuania at Hampden three years ago and claims this result was more important than personal glory.
He said: "I've managed to score a couple goals and it was just nice to win the game. It wasn't a classic to play in and we didn't play at the highest tempo. But the most important thing is that we won the game."
However, with the match still level deep into injury time, he admits he did fear the worst.
"Of course you do," said McManus.
"You would love to score early goals but you just need to keep going and that's what we did.
"They kept their shape, they kept their discipline, which a lot of internationals teams do. It was up to us to break them down and we struggled at times to break them down.
"We are only two games in. You can't win the group after two games but you can certainly be out of it. Fortunately for us, we are on four points.
"You enjoy nights like this, representing your country. There are enough folk sticking the knife in and having a go at us.
"We've not played well at all tonight but we've won the game and you need to look at the positives."