IN the diverse and imaginative lexicon of cricket they talk about a flat-track bully, a batsman who is able to score freely when the pitch isn’t doing a great deal to help the bowlers. It is a term that has been adopted in a more general sporting sense to mean an athlete who tends to struggle against top-level opposition but is capable of dominating inferior sides.

The gap between the leading international football sides and the minnows may not be as gargantuan as it once was as the smaller sides become better organised, but there are still times when strikers, in particular, must eye up the frailties of the opposition and lick their lips at a decent chance to bolster their scoring ratio.

In Scotland’s ultimately failed attempt to qualify for Euro 2016, the matches against Gibraltar proved particularly appealing to Steven Fletcher who plundered a hat-trick both home and away. In his 28 other internationals, the striker has scored just three times, one of which came against another bottom seed in Malta.

That same game earlier in this World Cup qualifying campaign also proved fruitful for Robert Snodgrass who also helped himself to a hat-trick in a 5-1 win. Like Fletcher, the on-loan Aston Villa man only has another three international goals to his name.

Confidence bolstered by Friday night’s comfortable win in Lithuania, the Scotland forwards will again look to buttress their goals to game to ratio when Malta arrive at Hampden tomorrow night, having already conceded 19 times in their seven games.

Mark McGhee, a former striker himself and now the Scotland assistant manager, sees nothing wrong with players like Leigh Griffiths or Chris Martin looking to pad their record against the so-called whipping boys.

“As a striker you always felt there were goals [against the smaller nations]”, he said. “Griff got a couple against England in the last home game and that has accelerated him into his career as an international striker. I am sure he wants more so, yeah, you look at games and see some as more of an opportunity than others.

“But it has got to be a collective thing. Griff has got to be part of the initial strong start. It can’t just be gay abandon in the belief that eventually we will score more goals than them.

“We have to keep it tight until we get the first goal and then Griff or whoever can kick on and try to get the hat-trick as long as we get the first one early enough. But the most important thing is we win the game not that they all get three goals each because that is not going to happen.”

Martin was another who scored in the opening match of this campaign in Malta and could benefit from a change in shape should manager Gordon Strachan elect to start with a more attack-minded formation for the return game that includes two centre-forwards rather than the usual one.

The Derby County player has come off the bench in the last three Scotland games – most notably scoring the late winner against Slovenia at Hampden – and hopes to play his part again tomorrow night, even if the goals have dried up for him in recent months.

“I’m naturally quite a confident person anyway so not scoring isn’t something I really worry about too much,” he said. “You just go into each game, expect to play your best and hopefully the goals will come. Recently that’s not been the case for myself but I’ve not given it a second thought. I know if the chances keep coming along the goals will come. Once one goes in you often go on a bit of a run of three or four in quick succession.

“I would like to think me and Griff could form a decent partnership. I’m not sure what the manager will want to do. I would like to be playing but we’ll have to wait and see what the tactics are.

“He’s grown and matured into a very good player. We saw the quality he’s got in that England game and we see it regularly on the Scotland training pitch. He’s also been scoring goals for fun for Celtic who are a very good team so it’s no secret it’s a very good player.”

Tomorrow’s game will need to be special to top the last outing at Hampden when Scotland came within seconds of recording a famous home win over England. Martin was thrust into the maelstrom just 10 minutes before the end and won one of the free-kicks that Griffiths converted to have all of Scotland dreaming.

“Sometimes it can be difficult coming into a game like that,” said the Suffolk-born striker. “Even as a substitute you can be blowing hard just trying to keep up with the pace of the game. But I was involved straight away. We were down at the time and had to get back into the game so I was obviously going to be busy and involved. So that’s nice as a substitute to be able to have a positive impact right away.”

Friday’s result will only heighten the feeling among the Tartan Army that Scotland ought to win this game comfortably and Martin and McGhee both asked the fans to do their bit.

“Hopefully they will be as vocal as they were for the England game in the summer,” said the player. “The expectation was maybe different going into that one, a little bit of trepidation for the fans and not knowing what to expect from us as the underdogs. But in this game we will be fancied as favourites to get a result and it will be about how we deal with that responsibility and thriving on it.”

McGhee added: “I remember saying before the England game the responsibility of getting the fans going lies with us and thankfully the performance there had them up on their feet. It can be the same against Malta. If we start well, get the ball, make chances and score goals then the crowd will be with us. That remains our responsibility. We can’t be critical of them being impatient when we face lesser opposition. We have got to go out and make it happen.”