Seconds away, round two.

Alex Salmond faces the biggest challenge of his political career tomorrow in his return bout with Alistair Darling at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The First Minister is being portrayed in some quarters as an ageing boxer who's come out for one final bruising bout before retirement.

Which is probably a good thing for the Yes campaign, because Salmond is usually best when he comes from behind. He is the ultimate comeback kid, having come back from the political graveyard repeatedly over the 24 years that he has led the SNP.

There is a question mark over how much the voters really care about these set piece events. Last time, there was a media consensus that Alistair Darling won the debate, but viewers at home thought it less of a walkover. Like parliamentary Question Time, these confrontations are as much for the morale of the supporters as for the voters. But morale is important.

The biggest risk is that his advisers will try to over-prepare the FM, as happened last time. He should avoid "Project Fear" quotes about being more vulnerable to alien attack. Salmond knows the arguments inside out - he's been deploying them at First Minister's Questions week in, week out for seven years. If he doesn't know his stuff now, he never will. So, let Salmond be Salmond.

He will be attacked on oil, and Sir Ian Wood's newly minted pessimism over how much remains under the North Sea. The press seemed to have been struck with collective amnesia last week, because only in February, Wood reported that oil and gas worth £200 billion in revenues was recoverable over 20 years. This remains a valuable asset. As we report today, the industry itself does not share Wood's pessimism.

There will be angry exchanges on currency, but the polling evidence suggests most Scots agree with the FM, at least as far as wishing to keep the pound and the likelihood that Westminster is bluffing.

And the FM should dismiss Lord Birt's claim last week that Scots will not be able to watch BBC programmes after independence. Of course they will, as they do in Ireland.

Salmond will be accused of lying over the National Health Service, by suggesting it could be privatised. But health service unions like Unison say it is naïve to think that the Scottish service can be immune to the wholesale invasion of private providers into the rUK NHS.

The Yes campaign has erupted into a multicoloured mass campaign the like of which we haven't seen in Scotland for decades. Change is in the air. However, the First Minister still needs to reassure those voters who like the idea of independence but remain fearful of economic risks. He needs to show that he understands their fears, is on top of the economic numbers, and is flying on more than a wing and a prayer.

He is certainly capable of doing so.