THERE can be few better at keeping people’s feet on the ground than Gordon Strachan. The Scotland manager has rarely been a man to allow his emotions to run away from him, even in the immediate aftermath of one of his side’s most accomplished performances in years. Strachan undoubtedly enjoyed Scotland’s 3-0 victory away to Lithuania but he is not getting carried away just yet. There is plenty more work still to be done.

It has been some time, however, since the Tartan Army was last able to luxuriate in a feelgood factor like the one currently enveloping the national team. Had Scotland somehow managed to defend a 2-1 lead over England for three minutes of injury time rather than letting Harry Kane sneak in at the back post to score, that sense of optimism would have been even greater.

Still, with just three games left in this juddering, staccato qualifying campaign for next summer’s World Cup finals in Russia, Scotland at least still have a chance, even if it remains realistically an outside one. Those heading to Hampden tomorrow night for the match against Malta will likely do so with a greater sense of purpose than would have been the case had Scotland not returned from Vilnius with a victory.

Strachan’s men would have been expected to run out comfortable winners even before Friday night’s endeavours and that feeling will have been heightened given the ease with which the Scots cut through the Lithuanian defence. A Maltese team beaten 5-1 on their own patch in the first game of this campaign will surely put up even less of a fight.

Strachan, though, was hardly sounding the bugle yesterday as, somewhat sleepily having only arrived back at the team’s Renfrewshire HQ in the early hours of the morning, he warned against the idea that this was going to be a turkey shoot against the bottom side.

Scotland, he admitted, had enjoyed elements of fortune in their win over in Malta, while others have also struggled. England only beat the islanders 2-0 at Wembley, and needed until the 86th minute to put the return match to bed on Friday night. Slovenia and Lithuania also only beat Malta 2-0 in their home games, with three of those goals coming late on. Patience, Strachan stressed, will be key.

“People will look at that game [the 5-1 win in Malta] and think that we got breaks at the right time,” he noted. “We said afterwards that we were lucky to get the breaks and we didn’t disguise that. We didn’t think it was a 5-1 mauling. We just thought it was a good performance, with the breaks at the right time. It a night when everything went for us.

“But how hard did England find it to break them down? How hard did other teams find it? So, getting the first goal against them is the most important thing. Lithuania took nearly 80 minutes to get their first goal against them and that was from a corner kick.

“The key for us is patience. If you come along to [tomorrow’s] game and think it’s going to be shots from everywhere, you’re going to be disappointed. It’s not going to be like that. They’ve got so many big people in their team and they’re really disciplined and strong. So it’s going to be a night for real patience and if you’re going to get upset and flustered, it’ll play into their hands.”

Strachan will only really start to finetune his preparations for the Malta game today, believing yesterday was too soon to try to give a tired group too much tactical or other information. He hinted he will resist the temptation to simply send out the same side who did so well against Lithuania, with a different approach required for a home game against a Maltese side likely to sit deep.

“Yes, [I’m tempted] but it’s a different system and it might need something different. And, as I keep saying, it’s all about players. In Lithuania it was all about energy, which we felt was better than theirs.

‘You have the game, you get on the bus and as soon as you’re on the bus you think ‘right, Malta’. That stops you enjoying it. You wake up during the night and think ‘Malta’. So you don’t have too much time but it was good to see the players afterwards, enjoying the victory.

“We didn’t show them anything on Malta [yesterday] because they were tired, physically and mentally. They can’t really take anything in the next-again day. So we’ll wait till [today].

“Malta have been playing five at the back, four in midfield and one up. Or a 5-3-1-1. They are always difficult.”

One statistical nugget to emerge yesterday was that Andy Robertson’s goal on Friday night made him the first Liverpool player to score a competitive goal for Scotland since Kenny Dalglish.

“That’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant and he played well last night,” added Strachan. ”He’s come on a bundle as well. He’s got that ability to beat people. He’s got that top player mentality. A lot of players can’t do that. They have to flick the ball away and play a pass that’s only 50% on and go backwards. All kids should learn right away that the ability to beat people and shield it is the most important thing.”