DAVID MARSHALL must have been tempted to head to Glasgow Airport in times past with a bucket and spade, an inflatable crocodile and a foam seat to alleviate the impact of those interminable hours on the bench, those unending interludes on the sidelines of the national team.
The Cardiff City goalkeeper has earned 13 caps for Scotland over 10 years. He has been a regular in the squads, has totted up more air miles than Richard Branson yet in a decade has spent just more than 20 hours on the pitch.
Yet he has turned up without a murmur of protest, just waiting for his chance. It has come and he has grabbed it with the sort of certainty he displayed in a marvellous season in the English Premier League. He could not save Cardiff from relegation but, frankly, Superman would have been tested by such a mission.
Marshall has, though, risen to such a level that Wojciech Szczesny, his counterpart in goal tonight, feared that Arsene Wenger was seeking to bring the former Celtic goalkeeper to Arsenal during the close season.
Phlegmatic and modest, Marshall has appreciated that matters might not always go his way, given that Scotland are extraordinarily strong in the No.1 position with Allan McGregor and a revitalised Craig Gordon giving Gordon Strachan viable alternatives.
But he is grateful that a plane journey to Poland is now likely to culminate in something more testing than a training session and fielding shots at half-time.
"It's brilliant coming on these trips knowing you have a right good chance of playing. It lifts you so much, makes such a difference to how you feel," said the 29-year-old. "Sometimes you need luck - a wee injury to someone else, that sort of thing - but however you get in, you just have to take your chance when it comes.
"It's tough travelling all the time when you know you probably won't get the shout, but you still want to be part of the squad. When you eventually get the chance to play regularly, it's a great feeling.
"It gives me confidence that the gaffer's picking me when he could have picked Allan McGregor or Craig Gordon over me. It's not just the last couple of games, either, he's been good with me for a year and a half now. If it was to change here and Craig came in, I'd have no worries with that because it'd be a top keeper coming in. All you can do is play your best and hope he keeps handing you the shirt."
Marshall, though, will be the last line of defence in Warsaw tonight as Scotland look to deflate a side that has just won against the world champions. However, he expects much of the most significant action to be at the other end, recalling the 1-0 victory against Poland in a friendly in March.
"We played really well the last time we were here. Obviously, they were missing the likes of [Robert] Lewandowski, but if it's possible to have a comfortable away game, we probably had it," said Marshall.
The man who will defend Scotland's goal was positively on the front foot when he looked forward to tonight's match.
"If you were to offer me a point here right now I probably wouldn't be happy with that," he said. "The confidence we take from the first half in particular on Saturday means we can approach this on our own terms, worry about our own game and not theirs. They'll have big players coming back, but we'd fancy ourselves to match them and come back with the win."
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