Former Ireland winger Stephen Hunt believes a Steven Naismith style link player was one of the main issues for Ireland tonight.

After the 1 - 0 defeat to Scotland at Celtic Park, the Ipswich man spoke to Off The Ball and pointed that tactical point.

"I think Naismith is key because he allows the wingers to go up the pitch. He's very good at linking play," said Hunt.

"Long and Walters will do their fair share of work and they'll come back into the hole. But are they comfortable doing it? Probably not and if we had a link player tonight, my friend David McGoldrick would have been a good foil for that. It would have been a big ask to fire him into international football but I would have been keen to put him in there."