SCOTLAND goalkeeper David Marshall has revealed the jealousy he felt watching the British Isles teams in action during this summer's Euros.
Gordon Strachan's side failed to qualify for the expanded tournament in France and the 31-year-old admitted how difficult it was to follow the various fortunes of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.
Ahead of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, which starts in Malta on Sunday, Marshall, reportedly set to for a transfer from Cardiff City to Hull, told Sky Sports: "It was difficult to watch the home nations - because everyone was there it was hard to watch at times.
Read more: James McFadden: Move to Germany can help Oliver Burke become a Scotland star
"Obviously I watched most of the games, there was that feeling of 'what if?', a bit of jealously as well that you are not there.
"Hopefully it can be used to spur us on in this campaign."
Scotland have not been to the finals of a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup in France but this qualifying campaign promises to be as tough as any other over the past two decades.
The Scots will also have to face England, Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania, with the Three Lions, under new boss Sam Allardyce, favourites to win the group despite a disappointing Euro 2016 campaign which saw them sensationally knocked out by Iceland in the last 16.
The former Celtic keeper said: "A lot of the teams in this qualifying campaign have been to the Euros.
"There can be some sort of hangover with some teams sometimes, so we hope to take advantage of that.
"But you are desperate to get there before your career comes to a close.
"I watched their (England's) opening game against Russia and they were excellent.
"It just shows you that one bad performance and they have ended up out of the tournament after that obviously disappointing game against Iceland.
"They will be looking now, with a new manager, to get that reaction so we know how difficult it is going to be."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here