ANDY ROBERTSON hopes 'committed' Steve Clarke stays on as Scotland manager, but accepts he may have a decision to make with the Celtic manager’s job still vacant.

The Liverpool star has loved working under Clarke for the national side, and says he was a driving force behind the Scots qualifying for their first major tournament in 23 years.

The Scotland captain isn’t surprised to see Clarke linked with other jobs - including Celtic - as a result, but he has his fingers crossed that the former Kilmarnock manager stays to lead the country in their quest to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Qatar.

And he sees no reason why that would not be the case.

“I’ll let the manager talk about that,” Robertson said. “I’m not sure what is happening with the Celtic job.

“I’m very happy with him being the Scotland manager. We’ve come over a lot of hurdles with him and we’ve still got a few hurdles to go. I believe he is committed to that.

“He loves the Scotland job and he loves working with this group of boys. Whatever decision he makes, if there is a decision to make, he will make it for the best for him. And we’ll deal with that.

“There is no reason to think that he’s going to leave. Until that changes, we will keep working under him and he will keep doing what he is doing. Then we’ll see what happens.”

Robertson has stressed the importance of getting off to a good start in the World Cup qualifying campaign against Austria at Hampden tonight, as Scotland look to back up their qualification to the European Championships.

“Beating Israel and Serbia in the play-offs was a huge step for this nation, being able to show we can qualify for tournaments again,” he said.

“I know a lot of the Tartan Army thought it was never going to happen again.

“You get that feeling when you get so close, but still so far, in so many occasions. Then, finally, we took that last step.

“Now it’s about building on that, it’s about trying to create a team and a squad and a generation, and the nation becomes used to qualifying for tournaments.

“That’s certainly our motivation.”