Football: Scotland confident ahead of Poland test

GLASGOW- The Poles are the surprise leaders of Group D following their historic 2-0 win over world champions Germany on Saturday.

Scotland sit in third place in the table following a 1-0 win over Georgia in Glasgow - a performance manager Gordon Strachan hailed as the best of his reign.

And Brown, who skippered the side in the win at Ibrox, says the Scotland players have to put previous qualification failure out of their minds as they bid to qualify for the finals of a major tournament for the first time since 1998.

"We're getting the belief back, we're looking strong and we got the three points, which is the main thing," the Celtic midfielder said.

"We have got to take every positive we can from it. We created chances and could have been three up at half-time. We defended really well and were solid all the way through.

"They didn't even have a shot on target, so it tells you how well we defended.

"The way we are playing right now we have got to look forward and try to be positive.

"We don't need to look back on what happened two or three years ago. We need to look forward to the future." Brown has happy memories of Warsaw, with the midfielder bagging the winner in a 1-0 defeat of Poland in a friendly back in March.

However, the Scotland captain is under no illusions as to the scale of the task facing Strachan's side on Tuesday and says the Scots will have to defend resolutely if they are to take anything from the game.

"We'll go away now and work on how Poland are going to play. That will be another different style for us to cope with," Brown said.

"They will not play and defend like Georgia did so we will have to adapt and maybe take on a different shape.

"Of course we'll take heart from winning in Poland back in March but it was a friendly at the end of the day.

"This is a huge qualification game for us away from home and we know how hard it will be.

"Going away in Europe is always difficult and we'll have to defend really well again.

"Every game is crucial for us now in the group.

"We need to get as many points as we possibly can because Poland, Ireland, Georgia again, they will all provide us with good tests.