Craig Levein is happy with the progress being made by his Scotland side despite their slump down the FIFA world rankings.
Scotland dropped 16 places to 66th in the rankings announced on Wednesday by football's world governing body, with world and European champions Spain - top of Scotland's Euro 2012 qualifying group - leading the way.
Levein is aware a poor ranking could have an adverse impact on Scotland's hopes of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, but he is unfazed, and said: "I really do believe we're heading down the right road, doing the right things to enable us to qualify, not just for one tournament, but for tournaments like we used to do, every two years."
He added: "There's two things going on here - there's the ranking system and what I believe is the right thing to do to build a team.
"Of those two things I know what I'm concentrating on is more important.
"If we get that right, the ranking will come right.
"We were 13th in the world at one point not so long ago (October 2007) - were we the 13th best team in the world at that point? I don't think so.
"We're down to 66th. Are we the 66th team just now? I don't think so."
Source: PA
