Steven Naismith: Being at home can give Scotland edge against Slovakia
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The last two qualifying games in our World Cup campaign, at home to Slovakia and away to Slovenia, are definitely winnable.
We had used all our lives up and the games that were left were must-wins. I think we dealt with it perfectly.
Not only did we get the two wins against Lithuania and Malta but the manner in which we got them, especially in Lithuania, was great.
It's a good thing that we don't have to wait long until the next games on 5 and 8 October.
Against Slovakia, it gives us the edge being the home team.
We need to be alert to their threat. They showed against England that they're a team that will start pretty quick and come at us but we have the players to cause them problems.
If we stick to the game plan we give ourselves a right chance.
If you can get that result against Slovakia, you are in a position going into that last game against Slovenia when all you need to do is win one game over 90 minutes.
There are enough boys who have the experience and we need to use that to our advantage.
Slovakia are a really good team. Just look at where some of their players are playing. They always look to get on the ball, they are confident to take their touch. If somebody is pressuring them they still have the bravery to hold onto the ball and know they are going to take a bump but they are confident they will keep possession.
With us not playing that well out there in Slovakia, we still created good chances.
I've played with Vladimir Weiss and against Martin Skrtel, and Marek Hamsik is arguably their most talented player.
If we can get to the play-offs, I'll have a look about but it would be tempting fate to look any further than the next two games. There are so many what-ifs.
When you're younger, being left out is definitely harder to take but as you get older, there is so much football being played, it becomes more of the norm, especially for forward players.
As an older player, as the week goes on you start to see patterns and you get a feeling for things but for everybody in the squad it doesn't change the mindset. We're all in it together to get to the finals; no-one is taking the huff. We all back each other.
The nucleus of the squad has been together for a long time which does bring a comfort. Everybody is happy to be along. It's like a club mentality. You get close to players. The majority of the boys you'd have a text or a call with in between matches.
Moving south can be tough for Scots
I was in Kilmarnock's first team and Jim Jefferies told me Arsenal wanted me to go down for a week.
I remember going down, 18 at the time, and the changing room was full of guys I watched on Match of the Day - Theo Walcott, Ashley Cole, Gilberto, Adebayor, experienced stars who had won the Premiership.
It was an amazing experience. I just went along with it but then I thought, 'I don't even know if I could move away'. I could never see myself doing that because I was a guy who loved being at home.
I know how daunting it is for youngsters to move. You still live with your parents so you don't have the experience of bills, cooking, and that's before you start the football.
You're in the public eye, you're making potentially more money than your parents would make on a monthly basis. It's a dangerous combination.
I used to talk to a lot of the boys who did move south early and try to understand how they managed it.
For any English team to buy a Scottish young player who's a teenager or in their early 20s, it's a drop in the ocean.
Scottish clubs can't afford to knock back the money.
For the club down south, it's a punt in a lot of cases, unless it's a hot prospect.
If one of them pays off, like James McArthur, it's worth a gamble. There are many who don't make it and find it tough.
You are moving there as a punt and you need to work as hard as you can.
I can honestly say I've not come across a player who has moved down south and not grasped it with both hands.
Every player who has come into the national team has that fighting spirit, what Scottish people have. They appreciate the chance they get, the facilities they work at, the coach they work under; that's what drives them.
At Everton, Roberto Martinez always said to me that he liked having some Scots around his squads because he liked that mentality.
He obviously saw it first hand as a player in Scotland but to then want it as a manager shows how valuable Scottish players can be.
It can be really tough for young players. You need to have a strong family and friends. The youth team that they join become their mates. So many will have moved away from home. They socialise with these guys more than their mates they grew up with. They need to be strong characters to say 'no, I'm not going out tonight' or 'I'm going in for a recovery today' when some of the other boys are trying to tempt them into it.
Championship level 'very high'
The Championship in England is the most gruelling league because of the amount of games. There are so many teams that are at different levels, it brings its own challenges. You have such a variety of styles of play. There are more footballing teams coming in to the Championship, ones who want to get the ball down and play through teams, and others who don't mess about at all, who are as direct as possible.
A lot of players have got their good points and things they are not so good at.
You can't cater for everyone in this league. Most teams don't go through a Championship season without seeing shock results because of the different styles of play and the demands on the players to compete midweek, weekend, midweek, weekend.
It only takes a couple of players to be not on point for it to go against you.
Travelling up and down the country can be tough but at Norwich City, we fly to a few of the furthest grounds from Norfolk, which helps. With the midweek and weekend games, it is constant. You've got to recover from the previous game and then prepare for the next one.
In Scotland, Celtic are way out in front but even if you take Rangers, say, there's a demand there that brings a pressure for individual players that they can't handle sometimes but then they'll be in the Championship and they'll be one of the top performers.
When you drop down to the other teams in Scotland, outwith probably Rangers, Celtic and Aberdeen, I do think there is a bigger gulf and that is down to finances. They can attract better players.
The level of football is very high. You have got that spectrum from the clubs that are pushing for promotion and the ones that are trying to stay in the league, which is inevitable, but overall the general quality of player in the Championship is very high.
Just look at the quality of teams that go up from the Championship to the Premier League - it started with West Brom and Stoke, then Bournemouth and now Huddersfield have started very well.
Steven Naismith was speaking to BBC Scotland's Keir Murray