GORDON Strachan last night insisted Scotland's disappointing 1-1 draw with Canada in a friendly international at Easter Road had been "invaluable" ahead of the crucial Russia 2018 qualifier with Slovenia.

The national team fell behind to rivals who are currently placed 117th in the FIFA world rankings when Fraser Aird of Falkirk netted in the 11th minute.

A first half Steven Naismith goal levelled a match watch by just 9,150 spectators - but the home team performed poorly and at no stage looked capable of recording a win.

It was an alarming display so close a crucial Group F game at Hampden on Sunday which Scotland need to win in order to keep their slim hopes of reach the next World Cup finals alive.

However, Strachan believes he learned a lot about the form and fitness of the players who were involved and is clearer about the starting line-up he will select this weekend.

"I think it is one of our better decisions to have a game," he said. "It has cleared up a lot of things, it has helped the players and it has helped the coaching staff with where we're going on Sunday.

"We learned quite a few things tonight. It wasn't a great night, it won't be memorable at the end of anyone's career, but it was invaluable for me to use the information we collected tonight for Sunday.

"I thought a lot of players found it hard, Using a golfing analogy, it is very hard to take two months off at golf and then go and play in the US Masters. It isn't the easiest course in the world.

"So it wasn't the easiest pitch in the world to play on tonight with the conditions. To try and find your form in an international match on a night like this was hard. You could see our rust in the first 10 or 15 minutes.

"That spooked us for a bit. We could have been braver with our passes through people and braver to receive it. But when you haven't played a lot of games it is very hard to just switch on and do that."

Strachan added: "It will need to be better on Sunday - unless we're very lucky. But we're not going to try and rely on luck at the weekend, we are going to try and be better. It helped me a lot tonight that game.

"I'm sure a lot of players would have liked to have played a bit better, but that was the way it was. We will just have to deal with that and use the information we collected tonight for the game on Sunday.

"It is very hard coming to play at international level when you are not firing on all cylinders in your club game. It is hard to be put in the spotlight. But we needed to find that out."

Strachan, whose side was booed off at the end of the 90 minutes, did feel that some of his players had performed well in the capital and had a chance of being involved against Slovenia.

"I thought Charlie (Mulgrew) was alright, Kech (Ikechi Anya) did fine, (Tom) Cairney made his debut, (Andy) Robertson came on and did well and Barry (Bannan) had some good touches," he said.

"But I think some of us found it a bit difficult. The professionalism of (Darren) Fletcher kept us going at times. We learned a lot. I wouldn't say it makes our decisions any easier, but it makes them clearer."