IT might seem a little premature to start a discussion about momentum, but Callum McGregor, the Celtic and Scotland midfielder, is optimistic that Steve Clarke’s side can draw out the positives from the latest results.

Wins against Cyprus and Kazakhstan, added to the cakewalk against San Marino, have encouraged some belief within the national side ahead of the draw for March's Nations League play-offs.

Whether there is sufficient evidence to suggest that Scotland can go into those games expecting to book a back-door place in next summer’s competition and end what would be a 22-year absence from a major tournament remains to be seen.

But McGregor is keen to eek out the positives from successive wins ahead of the definitive games in March.

“I think we’ve turned a corner in terms of intensity, the way we want to play and the way we want to press the game,” said the midfielder. “I thought we looked a good side.

“It’s about trying to bank that feeling. We will go away and obviously club stuff will take care of itself between now and March. But when we come back we will all be in a better place. The manager will feel good about himself, the players will feel good and we can go about trying to fill this stadium and make sure we get there.

“Slowly but surely we are getting there. It is a new group of players and we changed manager halfway through the campaign which is always difficult as well, straight away the gaffer is under pressure to turn it around. I think it has been a positive end to the campaign.

“Obviously, it is disappointing we did not qualify but the work we did last November got us to a place where we can try to qualify. We have to be positive and go into these games and really be confident we can do it.

“Within the group everyone can now believe because of what we have done on the pitch. You can talk a good game but you have to go and show it on the pitch and you have to get results.

“Once you start to get one or two results everyone starts to think: alright, maybe we have changed. I think that’s why it is important to get these two wins together. We could easily have drawn the game but we went on to win 3-1 and finished really strongly. Come March, everyone is feeling good about it and we turn up and play with that intensity again.”

Scotland lost their opening group game to Kazakhstan 3-0 to ensure that they were facing an uphill fight for qualification from the get-go. McGregor, though, has pointed to the manner in which Scotland were able to come from a goal down against the same opponents at Hampden on Tuesday night and turn the scoreline around. And, according to the midfielder, the way they re-established a lead in Cyprus is indicative of some spirit within the national side.

“That’s probably been the change in mentality, even in the last seven days,” he said. “Previously we were guilty of, when we lost a goal, heads going down and we could not get back into the game.

“But when it happened in Cyprus and we lost a quick goal you saw the reaction – we scored a quick goal almost straightaway. There is probably that bit of belief in the squad and in the team that if we do go behind we can still win games because we are pressing and we have good players in the team who can unlock defences and John McGinn is scoring goals at will, so everyone just feels a bit better about themselves.

“The confidence is there. Like I say, we will try and bank that and take it to March.”

Scotland will know their fate when the draw is made on Friday but McGregor has insisted that there is no need for trepidation.

“Whoever we get, we should be full of confidence,” he said. “If we play like we did v Kazakhstan and play with that intensity and press the way we did then we fancy ourselves against anyone.

“All the good work we did in November, it’s now come round and we have the chance to qualify now. So it has probably been a learning campaign again with the new manager and new players and everyone trying to learn and being under pressure at the same time.

“It has probably been good for us. I think now we come away with a little bit more experience along with the feel-good factor and the chance to put the bad campaign right and get the country there.

“It’s been a long time coming round and obviously with the four bad games in a row, everyone probably thought it was miles away. But now it has come round and we probably could not be in a better place confidence wise leading into the game.”