HAVING been both abused by once-adoring Aberdeen supporters at Pittodrie and barracked by a baying mob of irate Motherwell fans outside Fir Park in recent weeks, Mark McGhee could be forgiven for feeling rather relieved to be out of management at this present moment in time.

Yet, the Scotland assistant was just as pleased to join up with the national squad ahead of the double header with Canada and Slovenia earlier this week as he was when he first did so as a player many decades ago.

The Brighton resident - who has been involved, in one capacity or another, in professional football for 42 of his 59 years - has already tired of sitting in coffee shops in the seaside resort since parting company with Motherwell last month. “I am on the East Sussex cappuccino trail now,” he grinned. “It's much better being here.”

Not even being hit with a whopping six game touchline ban for comments made to a fourth official from the dugout during a Ladbrokes Premiership match against Aberdeen has diminished his unquenchable enthusiasm.

“Do you know, I have no idea what ban I got, what the actual number is,” he said. “I have no interest in that. I was hugely disappointed to leave Motherwell, but I have been sacked six times now. I will get over it.”

McGhee faces losing his position within the Scotland set-up along with manager Gordon Strachan if the national team fail to win the Russia 2018 qualifier with Slovenia at Hampden on Sunday evening after three disappointing results.

They sit in second bottom spot in their section after drawing with Lithuania at home and losing to Slovakia and England away. Defeat to opponents situated nine places above them in the FIFA world rankings would, despite the vote of confidence Strachan received from the SFA board at the end of last year, result in them moving on.

“I've only got one job now so I'd like to keep it,” he said. “What else can I say? I love this job. I love being involved. Even this morning I was out there watching the quality and tempo they train at. It’s just fantastic and I love being around it.

“I would like to continue as well, but as far as anything else around me is concerned, I'm not in any negative frame of mind or any different to how I've ever been coming here. I enjoy it and want to be here.

“It is good to come away and be part of it. And the same has happened to a degree with Jim Stewart (the goalkeeping coach who parted company with Rangers after 10 years last week). I said to Jim ‘it's great to feel normal’. You are not out the loop. I will think about going back into club management again. But not before the summer.

"I've not lost my desire. I love being involved with the national team, it's an honour and a privilege. You're watching boys train and the level they train at is just inspiring. They are fantastic players, regardless of what anybody else thinks. It's just great to be here.”

McGhee certainly needs to be fired up given the magnitude of the challenge which is facing Scotland this weekend; their own fans booed them at the end of their flat display in the friendly international against Canada in midweek and none of their five strikers has been playing regularly at club level in the build-up to the Slovenia game.

He is optimistic, though, that the situation can be turned around. “The fans need something to celebrate and something to hang their hat on,” he said. “They feel the couple of results we've had haven't given them that. We've got to accept that we have to win them back. But one result can change that. Imagine how people will feel if we get that going into the England game. It can all change on one result.

“Of course, the strikers not playing is a concern. But that is how it is and we have to just deal with that. These are all boys who, in the modern game, have a great attitude towards their own self maintenance, their own levels of fitness and their own health.

“We would hope they take that responsibility on and also the occasion itself, with the high stakes, would give them enough adrenalin to get them up to a level we know they are capable of.”

The former Celtic striker is hoping Scotland can tap into the positivity which their Parkhead contingent – Stuart Armstrong, Scott Brown, James Forrest, Craig Gordon, Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney – are feeling just now as a result of their exceptional domestic campaign.

“That's important,” he said. “Any Celtic players selected come in on a real high. They are about to win the title again when they go back. They are anticipating that. They all look great in training. And they will lift those who play with them in the game. So, yes, we hope to benefit from the positivity that seems to surround the Celtic players at the moment.”