GORDON Strachan has lavished praise on Shaun Maloney after the forward helped orchestrate a draw against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin which has increased their chances of qualifying for the Euro 2016 finals.
A Maloney shot was deflected into the Republic goal off the back of their captain and centre half John O'Shea early in the second half of the Group D match at the Aviva Stadium last night.
That effort cancelled out the goal the home team had, despite scorer Jon Walters being half a yard offside, recorded shortly before half-time and ultimately earned the visitors a point away from home.
Strachan singled out the Chicago Fire player, who had scored the winner for Scotland in the last meeting with the Republic at Celtic Park back in November, for special mention after the hard-fought result.
"We had a look at what we were doing at half time and moved a couple of people about, but we never had a chance to see if it worked because Shaun scored the goal," he said.
"All I know is for all that you can talk about systems, a very good player has got us a point. And a very good player, who is no taller than me, is back in the right back position 10 minutes from the end heading the ball away from (James) McClean.
"He's the most conscientious football player I've ever come across and he deserves every bit of praise he gets. If any young football player wants to watch anyone it's him."
Scotland were deeply disappointing in the first half and Strachan felt that replacing Matt Ritchie, the Bournemouth winger, with Ikechi Anya, the Watford player, at half-time had been responsible for a turnaround.
"We were far better in the second half," he said. "We couldn't get our system working in the first half. Whether that was down to Ireland pressing, their physical strength, or maybe our lack of match fitness I don't know.
"But there were seven or eight passes where you expect the players to pass to each other and they just gave it away, it goes down the pitch and you get a series of crosses. That just comes from missed passes and that's still the thing we need to do."
Despite his unhappiness with how easily his side gifted their opponents possession, Strachan was impressed with the effort his players put in to an energy-sapping fixture that came several weeks after the end of their club season.
"I just thought it was a great occasion," he said. "That intensity in June is ridiculous from players who've played that amount of games. It's phenomenal. I think the intensity comes from both teams desperate to win and also desperate not to lose when they've not got the ball."
Tempers flared at times during the match due to some hefty challenges and Russell Martin, the Norwich centre half, required medical treatment in the first half after being smashed in the face by James McCarthy, the Everton midfielder.
But Strachan refused to criticise the Irish players for their excessively physical approach to the game or condemn the referee for his handling of the fixture.
"I'm not really concentrating on the tackles," he said. "The most important thing in that game, is that seven or eight times we gave the ball away without real pressure . That was the big difference in the game and that's what was relevant. We got about 12 crosses against from us giving the ball away.
"I just think our players have maybe not had enough games in the past month and couldn't get to the pace of the game. We had to look at it from a coaching point of view and ask ourselves was the at the right team to pick for that game.
"But I'm certainly not going to sit in my my house and say: 'Oooh, that was offside!' It doesn't matter . It's finished now and all I have to do is make sure myself and the players don't make these mistakes again."
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