Gordon Strachan has hailed his Scotland side's 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland on Wednesday night.
The Scots required an 85th-minute header from Ipswich Town's Christophe Berra, which came courtesy of a cross from debutant Matt Ritchie, to edge the Northern Irish at Hampden Park in Glasgow in their tune-up for Sunday's Euro2016 qualifier against Gibraltar.
"I thought it was important to win, really important," he said.
"Just to make us feel good about ourselves. The performance at times was good as well, comfortable, brave on the ball, patient at times, getting used to the new pitch as well, it's a bit slick.
"It was really good to win and get a clean sheet because Northern Ireland have improved immensely over the past year, beating Hungary and Greece, and the Faroes."
Furthermore, Strachan felt his Scotland outfit created a good number of chances against Michael O'Neill's side who sit second in their qualifying group ahead of the home meeting with Finland in Belfast on Sunday.
"I'm pleased with the amount of chances we made and delighted with the number of chances they didn't get," Strachan added.
"They make it very hard, and the difference in this game is if you score early. But we kept plugging away and kept trying to do the right things. There were one or two things I would like do better but to win the game and get a clean sheet was good."
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