SCOTS NEED REALITY NOT TELEVISION

Christie wants to avoid watching another World Cup tournament from his armchair

- BY SCOTT MCDERMOTT

CROWD PLEASER Gannon-Doak always gets the Tartan Army on their feet with his direct wing play

LIKE every other Scotland player, Ryan Christie sat at home watching the last World Cup, gutted he wasn't in Qatar.

Hopes of qualifying for the 2022 finals were crushed by a defeat to Ukraine in the playoffs and the wait to reach the global showpiece for the first time since France 1998 continued.

Christie is desperate to put that right and he insists the quality in Steve Clarke's squad is so strong that the Tartan Army should be bringing a party in the USA, Canada and Mexico next summer, not forced to follow the action on TV.

Ahead of tonight's Group C crunch with Greece at Hampden, the 30-year-old Bournemouth midfielder declared: "I speak for everyone when I say we're all desperate to be part of a team that gets Scotland to a World Cup.

"The majority of us are too young to remember France '98, I was only three. There's been such a gap.

"We experienced that when we qualified for the first Euros. It was big to tick that box.

"We've been on a long journey as a group together with this manager and the only piece of the puzzle left is to qualify for a World Cup.

"I remember watching the last one, which we got close to in the playoffs.