Steven Naismith claims he has had no issues over Scotland duty

Steven Naismith insists Roberto Martinez has never tried to prevent him from playing for Scotland.

The Everton manager was criticised by Republic of Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane for pressuring James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman to miss international matches.

McCarthy has now missed Ireland’s last three matches and Coleman also failed to play in their World Cup qualifying clash with Germany yet played for his club just days later.

Naismith has played in all of Scotland’s five matches this season and is adamant Everton don’t place any of their players under pressure to sit out international matches.

“I’ve never had an issue,” said Naismith. “I’ve never once been questioned about whether or not I should go away to play for Scotland.

“It’s never been spoken about. The manager has only ever said good things and encouraged me to enjoy my international football.

“I think he was actually at the game last Friday night and he comes up to a lot of Scotland games and he’s all for it. Playing for your country is a great experience for every player.”

And Naismith says his club-mates McCarthy and Coleman would be gutted if their commitment was called into question.

The Scotland star said: “I know how much James and Seamus want to play for Ireland. It really hurts them when they can’t. They are two of the best pros around.

“I definitely don’t see any pressure coming from the club and the two players would do everything they could to play for their country.”

Naismith returned to Everton with mixed emotions over Scotland’s two most recent matches.

The 28-year-old is delighted Gordon Strachan’s side have enhanced their chances of qualifying for Euro 2016 following their magnificent victory over the Republic of Ireland.

But he is also disappointed his team-mates never managed to repeat that performance against England a few days later when they lost their friendly encounter 3-1.

He is, however, convinced Scotland are most certainly on the right path and feels progress is still being made.

Naismith said: “I think the time that we are going to have before the next international will give us time to reflect on how good a couple of years it has been and how good a start it has been to this campaign.

“But we are just about half way so we know that in the next competitive matches we need to be thinking about how good a feeling it was after the Ireland game and how hard we worked to get that win.

“That has to be the focal point and how we go forward and try to get to these finals at the end of it.”

Naismith believes the defeat against England will help keep expectation levels at a more realistic level although he insists winning the Ireland game was the priority for his side.

“The most important game was definitely the match with Ireland because of how important it was in terms of the group and attempting to qualify for a major competition,” said Naismith.

“It was fantastic to get the three points and it was a crucial win for us. We were hoping finish the double header off by putting on a good display against England but that didn’t happen.

“The biggest disappointment against England was we didn’t compete.

“We didn’t keep the ball well enough and if you give Premier League players that amount of time and space then they are going to punish you and they did.

“What did we learn from it? I think it shows we’ve still got a lot of work to do to improve.”