Scotland captain Scott Brown last night hit out at Malta’s Steve Borg for spitting at him during the host’s two-nil win at Hampden, calling his opponent “a horrible b*****d”.
The Maltese seemed to target the Celtic skipper in an attempt to wind him up, but Brown showed admirable restraint to avoid a booking that would have seen him sit out of next month’s vital Hampden showdown with Slovakia.
But after the match, Brown couldn’t hide his contempt for his opponent, who later claimed to have spat in his direction by accident.
"He did spit on me, he is a horrible b*****d,” said Brown. “He then puts his hand up to apologise but I managed to keep my head.
"He is a horrible b*****d but the main thing was getting the three points.
"Getting the win was the main thing, it was about the team - not about one person or bookings or anything like that.”
Brown was delighted with a professional team performance that sees the Scots move to within one point of Slovakia ahead of their visit to the national stadium in early October.
A win for England over the Slovakians at Wembley on the night ensured that next month’s qualifier will be do or die for Gordon Strachan’s men as they bid to keep their dream of reaching Russia alive.
"I thought we played really well, we played our game at our tempo,” Brown said.
"We were very patient with the ball, that's what we tried to do and we created chances from that.
"It is a great result from England as well for us, we knew we had to win our game and then just hope they gave us a helping hand.”
It was a strange and perhaps unprecedented scene at Hampden as Scottish fans cheered England goals as they fought back from a goal down to get the win that gives Scotland hope.
"I didn't really notice the cheering, I thought the fans were maybe cheering us for keeping the ball!” joked Brown.
"I didn't know England had been a goal down, we only found that out after the game.
"The Slovakia game will be massive now, hopefully the fans come out and support us next month."
Goalscorer Christophe Berra revealed meanwhile that he let down his daughter with his celebration after his early header set Scotland on the path to victory.
The player’s family were among the many thousands who were unable to attend the Monday night fixture in a sparse crowd of just over 26,000, but Berra knows that he will be in for some stick from his newly-turned five-year-old when he gets home.
“The only downside [to the goal] was that nobody was here to see it - it was a Monday night and you know what it’s like with the traffic,” Berra said.
“But my daughter Savannah Facetimed me before the game because it’s her fifth birthday and she asked me to score her a goal.
“And she asked me to do a forward somersault if I scored but I let her down on that front. But at least I kept part of the deal.”
Berra says that confidence is high among the Scottish squad after taking 10 points from their last 12, and he says they have to take the game to Slovakia when they come calling to Glasgow.
“It’s a big game but we’ve got big game players who thrive on situations like that and that kind of atmosphere and we’ll be ready,” he said.
“You’ve got grab chances like that when they are in front of you. You have to respect you opponents but also show no fear, go after them, force them into mistakes and put them on the backfoot.”
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