Steve Clarke believes Scotland can progress to the World Cup knockout rounds for the first time if they continue to play as they did in victory over Haiti in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
John McGinn scored the only goal as the Scots eked out an admittedly nervy victory, where they were made to sit back and soak up attacking pressure for much of the second half.
But Clarke, appearing at a World Cup for the first time in his career as a player or manager, had few complaints with his team's performance.
"I'm tired but absolutely delighted with my players," he told reporters post-match. "Resilience, character, everything about this group of players had to be on the pitch tonight and it was."
"Not relief, everyone told us it was a must-win game and we won the game. If it is a must-win game and you win, I think you can be happy with yourselves."
Scotland are appearing at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, and are hoping to reach the knockout rounds for the first time. Victory over Haiti after an earlier draw between Brazil and Morocco leaves them top of Group C and well placed to finish at least in the top three, which may be good enough to move on.
Clarke continued: "The next two games against teams inside the World's top-10 will be tough games, but obviously we go into them with a little bit less pressure than everybody put on us going into this game."
"And as well as everyone (else), we put a lot of pressure on ourselves going into the first game so we go into the next two games with a little less pressure."
"If we defend as well as we did there and show the same resilience, and hopefully play a little bit better with the ball and create a little bit more, we'll be okay."
The Tartan Army were in full voice throughout Sunday's fixture, and among them were Clarke's family. The scenes left him emotional at the full-time whistle.
"It tells you how difficult it is for a country like Scotland to go to a World Cup and win games. It doesn't happen very often. This group of players, as I have spoken about many times, I think they showed their experience tonight."
"I spoke about the disappointment of the two opening performances in the Euros, this time you go with that pressure as well as the pressure of you must win the first game, and they deserve it."
"They have been so good for their nation for the last seven years. They deserve to be the team that has finally got another win on the board in the World Cup so delighted for them."
Haiti boss Sebastian Migne, meanwhile, issued a rallying cry to his team after what he read as an undeserved defeat: "On one hand I am very proud of what the boys showed tonight, it was a very good showing, some good football."
"We rose to the challenge but it makes it that much more frustrating that we came up slightly short so I hope we can use that to continue to play well so that we can have hope. We know that with Haiti, nothing is ever easy. We have to be resilient."
"We are growing, we are learning, it will be a difficult game (vs Brazil on June 19). This was already difficult in terms of Scotland. Now we are heading to the top. We are not going to give up and we will try to write an even better story than we already have."
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