GORDON STRACHAN expressed his delight that "people are getting excited about Scotland again" and vowed he would look to maintain the feelgood factor by going to Dublin in June and playing to win.

At the halfway point of the qualifying campaign for Euro 2016, Scotland lie in third place in Group D but only a point behind leaders Poland and level with group favourites Germany. The top two teams in each group qualify for the finals in France, with the third-placed side likely to face a play-off.

Scotland's next qualifying match is against the Republic of Ireland in June, with many observers believing that a draw in Dublin would not be hugely detrimental to the Scots' chances of reaching the finals. Strachan, though, revealed it would be his intention to send out a team designed to record their first away victory of the campaign.

"People are getting excited about Scotland again and what's happened to create that excitement is the standard of the first five performances," said the national team manager who revealed his team could warm up for Dublin with a friendly against Qatar. "It's not just been one performance or two - it's been five performances which have allowed us to get into this position where we can look forward to the games that are coming up. The players have made it exciting for everyone.

"The Irish players did their bit on Sunday night as well by scoring that late equaliser against Poland. It means this next game in Dublin is going to be a terrific spectacle. Any wins are big wins from now on in - that's for sure - and you have to go for the wins. That's the way we will approach the game in Dublin, we'll be going there to win.

"A draw would not be a bad result for us but I have no idea how to set up a team to draw a game of football. I've not been with a manager yet who sets up his team for a draw. If it happens then it happens but our intention will be to win the match."

A defeat would likely end Irish prospects of qualifying for France but Strachan, diplomatically, was not of a mind to agree.

"You can't say that about Ireland because if you look at their games, they've scored three of their goals in the last few minutes", he added. "You can't knock them out of anything. I think they've won four points with goals in 91 minutes, 92 minutes and 94 minutes. So they will keep going right until the end of this campaign. But this is without doubt the most exciting group there is anywhere in Europe. It just so happens we're in it again."

Scotland bolstered their chances of qualification by beating Gibraltar 6-1 at Hampden on Sunday. It was, Strachan revealed, an "exhausting" afternoon, not least when the visitors drew level after 19 minutes with their first ever competitive goal.

"I think the whole thing was exhausting, form the build-up to the match itself," he added."It was an unusual thing for everybody - a totally strange game - because we went into it on a hiding to nothing. You know if you don't score six or seven then you're going to get it in the neck.

"You can deal with a wee bit of that but it all comes down to how the team performs. We had an idea about how we would perform but it didn't go entirely the way we had expected. It was strange. You start looking for problems that might not be there. Then you start thinking, "Have I missed something here?" When Gibraltar equalised I just thought to myself, "Dear oh dear, I didn't see that one coming!"

"But the strangest thing of all is that, in the back of your mind, you do see it coming because when you go into a game like that you are ready for something ridiculous happening. I think that helps you in a way because you just say, "Well, the ridiculous has happened now so let's just get on with it"."

The end result, however, meant that Strachan didn't have to avoid eye contact with travelling members of the Tartan Army on his drive back home to England.

"I met a geezer on my way back down the road with my wife. The weather was horrendous so I stopped for a McDonalds in a service station around about Cumbria. So we were sat there with our burgers and chips and I noticed this guy sitting across from us in a kilt. He was looking at me for a while and then he shouted over "Gordon!" as if I was trying to hide from him or something.

"So I asked him over to speak to me and it turns out this guy had travelled on his own all the way from Cornwall to watch Scotland play against Gibraltar. I went, "You what? ... Cornwall?". I mean, that's some journey isn't it? Alone in the car. I wouldn't have wanted to meet him over a McDonalds if we had just messed it all up."