‘Exciting & excellent Scotland have belief back,’ says Nicola Docherty

“Excellent” Scotland have rediscovered their “winning mentality” after a difficult 2023, says left-back Nicola Docherty.

The Scots suffered five defeats in six League A matches of their Nations League campaign last year, but have bounced back with an unbeaten qualifying campaign so far in pursuit of next summer’s Euro finals.

Now Pedro Martinez Losa’s side are just two games – a play-off with Finland – away from reaching a major tournament for the first time since 2019.

“We’re finding the way to win with that winning mentality,” Docherty told BBC Scotland after the 4-0 win over Hungary at Easter Road completed a 5-0 aggregate victory.

The Rangers defender added: “We’ve really started to believe in ourselves more after the disappointments of the last campaign.

“We’ve kicked on and want to make sure those moments don’t happen again. There’s a lot of belief in the dressing room now.”

Scotland’s confidence and belief was evident as they blitzed Hungary in impressive fashion.

“We controlled the game, we limited them to very little chances and controlled possession,” the Rangers captain added.

“We played some exciting football and that’s what we want to bring to the fans. It was certainly a better performance than last week.

“Credit to the girls, I thought everyone was excellent tonight.”