Tuesday 13 September 2016 17:33, UK
Robert Snodgrass can carry Scotland's World Cup hopes in the wake of Scott Brown's retirement, according to assistant manager Mark McGhee.
Hull midfielder Snodgrass scored a hat-trick as Scotland opened their World Cup qualifying campaign for Russia 2018 with a 5-1 win against Malta last week, having missed out on his country's unsuccessful bid to reach Euro 2016.
After Brown decided to quit international football to concentrate on his Celtic career, Snodgrass was overlooked for the Scotland captaincy in favour of Darren Fletcher, but McGhee insists the Hull forward's leadership will be vital to their efforts to make it through Group F.
"He's a fantastic character, a genuinely nice guy," said McGhee.
"He's a bit of fun so he lightens up the camp as well, but when it comes to the business end, he's right there.
"With the retirement of Scott Brown, we needed one or two to step up and fill his void, because he was tremendous in the last campaign. Snoddy looks like one of the ones who's going to do that.
"As he showed in the second half against Malta, he can not only play but also score goals.
"He has a leadership, a drive about him that influences others and that's going to be really important in the absence of Scott Brown."
After a comfortable win over Malta sent Scotland top of their World Cup qualifying group, which also contains England, McGhee has warned next month's visit of Lithuania will present a much tougher challenge.
"The win over Malta is only a starting point," he said. "We will take the good out of it but we also know we will have to play even better than we did against Malta to beat Lithuania.
"We're going to have to earn the win more than we did last time. Patience may be the key because we are unlikely to beat Lithuania by five goals.
"They will be determined, fit and hard to break down. They are likely to sit in a bit but will be capable on the counter so we will have to be vigilant.
"We felt we could take a risk in the Malta game with the starting line-up and system in order to find things out about people. This time, we will start with the team that is right for the 90 minutes and not, to a degree, to find out about players."
