Alex McLeish insists he can deal with growing pressure surrounding his future as he targets a morale-boosting win over San Marino.
It comes after the Scotland boss and his players were roundly criticised after a shocking performance in their 3-0 defeat to Kazakhstan.
The defeat to the 117th side in FIFA's rankings has left the national team's bid to reach Euro 2020 on shaky ground with calls for McLeish to go after the sorry trouncing.
There are no current plans for the SFA to discuss the future of the 58-year-old but that could change if Scotland suffer another setback against lowly San Marino on Sunday.
But McLeish is preaching positivity and is hoping his beleaguered players can show their worth after a night to forget in Astana.
They face a San Marino side who will hardly be high on confidence themselves, having only scored once since 2016.
McLeish said: "We have to win.
"I'm not going to say, 'Guys, we have to win this 10-0 or I'll be looking for new players'. We'll try to win the game and we're confident about doing that."
Alex McLeish's Scotland future latest as SFA chiefs fly out for must-win San Marino clash
"You can't avoid criticism. I've been in the game a lot of years and you have to take the good with the bad."
McLeish might be in the centre of a storm but he believes the good times are on their way and has backed his players to earn three points and change the mood back home.
He added: "I've had a lot of success. When you have the reverse, and there's a bit of negativity, the best thing to get rid of that is by winning the next game.
"I don't see any reason why we can't make it better. The group stage is a long process, all is not lost. There will be other trip-ups in this group stage.
"We've got young players coming into the team and learning the harsh facts of international football.
"I've spoken to one or two individually and a lot of them are pretty devastated about the result, as we all are."
