Leigh Griffiths delivered a couple of moments at Hampden in June that were of such a celebratory nature that one Scotland supporter felt duty bound to have a tattoo inked on his skin of the striker’s face as he wheeled away in delight after beating Joe Hart, the England goalkeeper.

For Griffiths, though, the expectation is that the indelible nature of his performance against England can act as further clarification that he can pen his own name into the elite company of international football.

Former Scotland internationalist Stephen McManus was part of the national team who came close in 2007 under Alex McLeish of taking the country back to a major tournament and he believes that Griffiths will use his performance against England as the barometer of what he is capable of.

“People were questioning can Leigh Griffiths play at Champions League and international level as a lone striker,” said McManus.

“He can. He has answered that. He’s a goalscorer who can play in any sort of team.He’s the guy who can make the difference. When you have a striker like him in your side all you need is half a chance and he will put it away.

“The strength of Gordon [Strachan’s] teams are the team as a whole. It’s not the one individual. But, when you sprinkle that bit of stardust it can make all difference. We had it at Celtic with Nakamura. You need players on international night who can produce that little bit of magic.

“Leigh Griffiths has that. And he is used to playing in big games and pressurised situations.It means when you go to play for Scotland you are not overwhelmed by the occasion. You can take it in your stride.

“He’s the type of centre forward who probably thinks he can cross the ball and get on the end of it himself. That’s what it takes to be a top international class striker. And Leigh has got that.

“He demands success and people feed off that.

“One of the biggest things at this level is belief.

“People always tell you that you can play at this level but until you actually do it then only then do you feel you have arrived.

“Stuart Armstrong would have been similar before he came into the team but already he’s show he can be one of our main players for the next ten years.”

For Scotland to be in with a genuine chance of securing a play-off spot they would need to win their remaining four games in the group, beginning with Friday night’s meeting with Lithuania.

Falling out of contention will mean that another tournament will come and go without Scotland being represented, an absence that would mean a 22-year-old run with no invitation to football’s biggest parties.

And McManus conceded that there is always a feeling that Scotland are the perennial team of also-rans, given the generations now who have no memory of the country at the finals of a major tournament.

“My first World Cup that I remember watching was 1990,” he said. “There was then Euro ’96 and you are watching Scotland on the edge of the seat. You think you’re going to win, you think you are going to get there and then someone just wipes the rug away from your feet. That [2007] campaign was like that too. I remember the week building up to the Italy game thinking ‘this is us.’ I really thought we were going to do it, and that was even after losing the game in Georgia. We were away to Georgia and I remember Alex McLeish telling us there was a 16-year-old in goal, a 16-year-old centre-forward and we were sitting there thinking, ‘this is us.’ It was just typical and that is the era that I grew up being in.

“As much as you try to keep things low key, we haven’t qualified for a tournament for so many years and as a player you go through that same emotion. That is when you need to keep a cool head on it. As a fan you can’t affect it but you can as a player. You need to play the game and not the occasion. That is what I felt that week, the build-up was all about going out to do it but then after 30 seconds we were a goal down and it deflated everything.

“But you look at the players we have got now; Andy Robertson is away to Liverpool and Kieran Tierney is in my opinion the best young Scottish talent I have seen in the country for I don’t know how many years. We have players who are at the top, top level and that is great.”

*Stephen McManus was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill are the proud sponsors of Scottish football.