THE artificial pitch that Scotland will play their Russia 2018 qualifier against Lithuania on this Friday night will pose no problems to their hopes of recording a crucial victory.
That was the confident prediction of Richard Foster, the St. Johnstone defender who played on the astroturf surface at the beginning of this season, last night.
Scott Brown, the Celtic and Scotland captain, this weekend expressed his reservations about the venue for the crucial Group F match, the LFF Stadium in Vilnius.
The 31-year-old has played on two plastic pitches recently – against Kilmarnock in the Ladbrokes Premiership and Astana in Kazakhstan in the Champions League play-off.
The midfielder believes the surface will favour Lithuania, who drew 1-1 with Scotland in their previous meeting at Hampden last October, massively.
Murray Davidson, the St. Johnstone midfielder, described it as the worst he has ever played on after his side’s game against Celtic on Saturday.
However, his team mate Foster, who played in a Europa League match against FK Trakai there at the start of last month, completely disagrees.
The former Rangers right back believes it could actually help Scotland, who are preparing for the game at Morton’s training base in Port Glasgow, perform at their best.
“I found the pitch out there quite good,” he said. “I felt that it wasn’t as harsh on your ankles, knees and hips as some of the pitches over here are.
“It played quite well even though it was quite dry over there. The ball still rolled nicely. It wasn’t as difficult twisting and turning on it during the game and in training as some I have played on. It wasn’t as difficult to adapt to as many of the artificial surfaces we have over here.
“I don’t think it will present a massive problem for Scotland. They will obviously go over there early and train on Thursday. I think that is all those players will need to do to get used to it.”
The 32-year-old has experience of playing on the continent from his time with Rangers – he played in both the Champions League and Europa League when he was on loan at Ibrox back in the 2010/11 campaign.
He knows the playing surfaces which Scottish sides encounter abroad can be poor so feels the artificial pitch in the MFF Stadium will allow players like Stuart Armstrong and Kieran Tierney to play their natural games.
He also thinks the Tartan Army can make a huge difference to the visitors in the 5,000 capacity arena and make it feel like a home match for Gordon Strachan’s side.
Foster added: “The ball is obviously not going to run or bounce exactly the same as it would on a grass surface, but as artificial pitches go it is a good one.
“I actually felt the surface out there had no bobbles on it, as many of the pitches that teams play on in international football do, and so that should be good for Scotland.
“The stadium is relatively small and the atmosphere that the fans generate inside it is quite good. I imagine there will be a lot of Scotland supporters in attendance so that could help “When we went over there the Lithuanian fans were actually quite subdued for long spells of the game because we were on top for long periods of the game.”
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