IT hopefully serves as some kind of positive omen that Hull City are gradually morphing into Scotland’s representative in the Barclays Premier League. Goalkeeper David Marshall last week became the latest to commit himself to the Humberside cause, joining a Caledonian throng that already included Allan McGregor, Shaun Maloney, Robert Snodgrass, and Andrew Robertson. It is a signing policy that seems to be serving them well. Despite having no permanent manager following Steve Bruce’s summer departure, and a change of ownership in the offing, Hull have made a bustling start to their return to the top division, winning their first two games before succumbing only to an injury-time Manchester United winner. With Scotland set to embark on a new campaign of their own, the heavy Hull influence throughout Gordon Strachan’s squad can surely only be a good thing.

“We obviously have a Scottish contingent down there and that’s only going to get stronger,” said Robertson. “Marsh is a good guy, although I only know him from international duty. Maloney knows him a wee bit better and those two tend to lock themselves away in their room. The start of the Premier League has been a good one for us because of how unexpected it has been - not with the players but with the press, fans and everyone outside the club.”

Robertson has been a pivotal part of that early-season success. The full-back boasts seemingly contradictory qualities in that he has both youth and experience on his side, an advantageous combination that has seen him blossom for both club and country in recent years. With Kieran Tierney injured, he is a near-certainty to start for Scotland away in Malta tonight.

Robertson’s ascent has been so steep it should have come accompanied by a team of Sherpas. And yet, less than three-and-half years on from playing with Queen’s Park in the third division, he remains impressively level-headed about his progress. At 22 he knows he has not finished learning, and that the Premier League can often be the cruellest of schools. But with an offer for him from West Ham United rebuffed over the summer and talks over a new deal at Hull in the offing, Robertson is evidently doing something right.

“Personally, I've started the season well,” he said. “I’m more equipped in this Premier League season than I was in the last one, which is understandable when I first came down from Dundee United and didn't know what to expect. Now I know what to expect and I feel I can adapt to the players that I am playing against. Hopefully, that can continue.

“My first year was quite a good season for me as I broke through in the Premier League and then was in and out of the team. But at the end of the day everyone at that club failed that season as we got relegated. It wasn’t good enough.

“I had to learn how to play against top quality players. You can think you’ve got them in your pocket for 85 minutes and then in the last five your man tears you apart and you get beat. That doesn’t happen in Scotland usually. If you’re playing well other people don’t affect you. But down there players can just turn it on in the last five minutes. And that’s what you need to keep in mind, to stay concentrated for the full 90 minutes. But I think I’m getting better at that.”

Robertson is sufficiently self-aware to know there are parts of his game still needing improved. Becoming a mainstay in the Hull team is giving him the platform to do so.

“Last season I played 56 Championship and cup games,” he said. “I think I only played about 24 or 25 games in the Premier League the season before so I have more than doubled my games. I've got experience. We got promoted, so it was a successful season and I probably played some of the best football I have done and you can take confidence from that.

"We have been working on my defensive side because even at United, when everything was going well, that was kind of my weakness. I think I have strengthened there, I feel more comfortable and that can only be a positive going forward. It's an age thing. You see centre-backs coming into their own when they are 30 or 31 because they have experience to defend. I am gaining that experience now and getting better and better.”

He will likely add to his 10 international caps in Malta this evening as he looks to help Scotland off to a flier following the disappointment of missing out on Euro 2016. Strachan has admitted that Scotland need to find a “big result” if they are to have a chance of reaching the World Cup but Robertson said that didn’t necessarily mean beating England.

“We won’t know when the big result comes,” he said. “We thought the big result in the last campaign was beating Ireland at home but then we fell short at Georgia away. If we’d won there that would have been the big result. You just never know. It could be the first game, it could be the last game.

“Obviously, you do look at the England games because they are the big team in the group. But if you go away elsewhere and you’re struggling and nick a win late on, that could be the big one. Until the end of the campaign we’ll never know what one that is – but hopefully we do get one and it will be enough.”