Lee: I Don't Mind These Games

Nov 11 2007 By Gordon Waddell

Come On Scotland 6 Days To Go

SOME respect us. Others disrespect us. Some tell us they're running scared. Others say we're no hopers.

They're coming at us from every angle, trying to mess with our brains.

Lee McCulloch's not buying any of it. He reckons psychological warfare is played by the weak and on the real field of battle only the strong survive.

The Rangers and Scotland midfield ace has heard it all and knows there's only going to be more to come the closer it gets to five o'clock on Saturday night.

From Fabio Grosso and Cristiano Lucarelli's dismissal of any Hampden threat, to Rino Gattuso and Antonio Di Natale's sham humility, Italy are playing both sides of the same street.

But McCulloch is driving straight down the middle and believes our own squad's tunnel vision for the job in hand could well see us through the final battle.

He said: "The Italians will be confident. They won the World Cup so must be favourites. But the mind games thing?

"That's for the weak minded. We just get on with the job in hand.

"We know what we have to do we have to win and take the game to them.

"Ignore anything else. Concentrate as an individual and as a team. If Italy want to say things we'll just do our talking on the park.

"I've had managers who try to use that stuff to fire you up, putting what the opposition said up on the wall. Sometimes it can make you angry and it can help.

"But it's all negative. If they want to say negative stuff about us then let them.

"The only thing that's important is how WE feel. And right now we're at our peak or round about it. If we beat Italy that will be us at our peak.

"We are at the highest FIFA ranking we have had.

"Everything is going well and to go out and get a positive result would be brilliant to keep that run going."

You sense in McCulloch a genuine belief that a win isn't beyond Scotland.

Sometimes you can say the words but remain unconvinced in your heart. The former Wigan star, a relative international rookie with 14 caps, reckons six points from France should have the Scots scared of nobody.

Of the watershed win over the World Cup finalists at Hampden he said: "It helped so much with the confidence and belief when the big games came around.

"If you can beat the French why would you not be able to beat Italy?

"And we have already drawn at home with the Italians recently.

"We will go out and we are going to be confident because you have to be, and believe you are going to win.

"But it's not going to be as easy as certain people have said it will."

A million miles from it. With the Faroes beckoning for Italy four days later a point would pretty much secure their passage to Austria and Switzerland.

And if a point is what they need then McCulloch knows they will do whatever it takes to get it.

The 29-year-old said: "This is the hardest game we will face simply because of what's at stake.

"The Azzurri are a better team than France - or at least they're harder to beat.

"And they will play nasty - I fancy them to be set up defensively.

"Can Scotland do it? Aye - definitely.

"We have drawn with Italy before and have beaten France at Hampden and in Paris. So why not?"