SCOTLAND don't just need to start winning games again, they could do with winning back the public.

The latter will not come about if the former doesn't happen more often and good victories, such as over countries with any sort of a football pedigree, have been rare in recent and not so recent times.

This is why a 1-0 win over Slovenia was treated, if not like a Wembley triumph, then certainly with far more vigour than such results had been in the past when very much seen as run of the mill.

Scotland have been poor, Sunday's match was Mother's Day at night, the sunny weather would have prevented some walk -ps given that sitting in the beer garden was hypothermia free and the SFA as always charged far too much.

All of these reasons meant Hampden was never going to be close to full and the biggest reason of all was apathy.

"Hopefully this makes people fall back in love with the team," said Steven Naismith who played most of the second half in place of Leigh Griffiths and showed up well after spending time out of Gordon Strachan's plans.

“Hopefully, the Slovenia win can get some supporters back with the team. People might have written us off and thought the campaign was just going to peter out but the result might change that.

“No-one can blame the fans because the start of the campaign wasn’t good enough. It makes the job harder, whereas if we’d put in some good performances, we’d be sitting in a promising position. But we’re still in the mix and that’s what we need going forward."

Scotland have England, Malta and Slovakia at Hampden, with trips to Lithuania and right at the end Slovenia before the final numbers are crunched.

There are almost limitless potential scenarios which lie ahead; however, one thing which can be said for certain is that Strachan and his men have little wiggle room.

There are 18 points to play for and a minimum of 12, perhaps, more are required and even then not every runner-up makes the play-offs. Scotland can forget pulling off a miracle if can't find a way to dominate in Glasgow, which is what the successful campaign of yore were based on.

“The home games will be crucial, we need the atmosphere we used to get at home games," said Naismith. "I know we played Ireland in the last campaign at Celtic Park, but that atmosphere is what we need.

“We need teams to come here and think: 'Wow, we’re in a game here.' Going forward, this is what we need and that will give us the best opportunity. We’ll go into the games believing that we can win."

Naismith described Sunday's win as 'job done' but it was a bit more than that. The team created chances, were unfortunate at times not to score more and looked confident on the ball.

Such traits were utterly absent in the home draw with Lithuania, a result which just might come back to haunt them, and certainly in Slovakia when a 3-0 defeat was all Scotland deserved,

“We dominated but it’s a game we’d expect to dominate," said Naismith. "It’s a win. We’ve played better, but it’s what we needed to do and we’ll move on now.

“The pressure was on and, to be fair, in the first-half we looked confident. That’s one thing this squad has got. There’s no superstars, but there are guys who believe in what they do.

“As they have got older, they have understood that if we miss a chance and there is ten minutes to go, just keep doing the right things and you will get more chances. That showed in the latter stages against Slovenia."

Naismith, now with Norwich City is 30, and so should have a few years left to give for the national side.

The former Ranger and Everton man has been one of his country's better players over the past four years and therefore it was strange to see him cast aside completely for the England match last November.

And he is experienced enough to know that while Scotland have quite a bit of ground to make up, nothing has been decided in terms of qualification.

“The last campaign for me was the biggest one I’ve been involved with in terms of being close and everyone half-starting to think: We’re going to make it," he admitted. "It slipped through our fingers, but we know we are still in this. There are big games coming at home and those are games we need to capitalise on.

“The victory should take away that bit of nervousness which surrounded the camp from when we met up and after the Canada game. It relieves a bit of that and the boys still believe. We’ve always believed."