It wasn't just old friends that Joe Jordan was re-united with at Hampden last night.

The auld ba' that still provokes seizures in Wales - the one he may or may not have handled during that decisive World Cup qualifier at Anfield in 1977 - made a guest appearance as the great, the good and the slightly perished gathered for the Scottish Football Hall of Fame Dinner.

Dodgy decisions aside, Jordan is adamant that a nation is united behind one man; Gordon Strachan.

We may have to content ourselves with friendly encounters with the USA and Norway to keep the current feel-good factor ticking over in the wake of another unsuccessful qualifying campaign, but Jordan is convinced good things will indeed come to those who wait.

The 61-year-old was a team-mate of the current Scotland manager during the 1982 World Cup in Spain, the tournament in which Jordan made his final appearance for his country - and scored - in the ultimately fruitless 2-2 draw with the Soviet Union.

More than three decades on, Jordan remains as passionate as ever for the Scotland cause and the first-team coach of Queens Park Rangers is optimistic about the future. There have been some fairly morale sapping lows over the past couple of years for the Tartan Army but Jordan, who led the Scottish line with a gap-toothed ferocity that made defenders shudder, can see plenty of light at the end of the tunnel. At the same time, the canny Scot is not one for getting too carried away.

"I think we should still be calm," said Jordan, who earned more than 50 caps between 1973 and 1982. "As Scots, we can get carried away - whether that's a national team or a club team. To get performances and results you need your best players, more so Scotland because of that strength of depth. That's where things could possibly be a hiccup. But at the moment it's going very well.

"I went to Wembley [for the 3-2 defeat to England] and I went there wondering 'what am I going to see?' I saw a team willing to play, it was a team that expressed itself.

"I'd seen both Croatia games and that was a test as well, but in a strange way I think the England game was the big test. I would never take that game as a friendly fixture and they weren't intimidated in any way. If Gordon [Strachan] took us to a major tournament it would rank up there with anything he's achieved as a club manager."

With Steven Fletcher back in the Scotland squad following a well-publicised exile under the previous regime, Jordan knows just how important it is for Strachan to have every player at his disposal for an assault on the 2016 European Championships. So, can Scotland end their long spell in the wilderness?

"I think so, yes," declared Jordan. "In my day, I think we had a stronger squad of players. No disrespect to the current boys, but it's up to the players now to emerge. He [Fletcher]was definitely a miss. That went on far too long and if you have a player who can lead the line, who can score goals, I don't think you can do without that.

"We [at QPR] have been notified about players up here, which is great. There are English clubs now looking at young Scots. That's always been the market. It wasn't five years ago, but is again. That's what you need for the future."