Friday’s defeat to Belgium was the lowest John McGinn had felt in a Scotland shirt – but believes they can put it right against Albania tonight.
Scotland were outclassed in the 4-0 defeat to the Red Devils but the importance of a competitive tie against Albania, coupled with the desire to get the Belgium game out of their system, has McGinn hoping for a marked improvement.
The Aston Villa midfielder made his 10th appearance for the national side on Friday and has featured in all five games since Alex McLeish took charge in February.
So far, Scotland’s only win came in Hungary where Matt Phillips scored the only goal of McLeish’s second reign to date.
Belgium delivered a harsh lesson to the Scots but McGinn is confident it can serve to inspire them at Hampden Park this evening.
The 23-year-old said: “It makes you hungry to go and improve the next time. That’s the way I have dealt with things my whole career.
“The Belgium game is probably the lowest I have felt in a Scotland jersey.
“It’s good we have a game on Monday to use that drive and hunger to go and improve.
“That’s all I want to do. I want it out of my system.
“I will try not to dwell on it too much and, hopefully, come Monday we can show what we have been working on during training and can get a positive result.”
The one consolation for Scotland is they should be one of the strongest teams in League C with only Romania and Serbia above them in the Fifa rankings.
McGinn added: “I think, with due respect, the way we are going to play means we are going to have more of the possession. But that doesn’t mean it is going to be easy to get a result.
“These games are very difficult and everyone knows that.
“Teams will sit in and try to counter on us so we have to use the ball better – be brave and confident.
“Hopefully, it shows on Monday. We know how important the Nations League is as it gives us another avenue to try to qualify and we have to take every chance we’ve got.”