GORDON Strachan will impress upon his Scotland players the importance of performing for the full 90 minutes and injury time before they take to the field for the Euro 2016 qualifier with the Republic of Ireland here this evening.
The Group D match against Martin O'Neill's side in the Aviva Stadium comes fully 11 months after many of Strachan's charges kicked off the 2014/15 season with their club sides.
The national manager last night stressed he has no concerns about the physical or mental condition of any member of his squad having been taken aback by their application in training this week.
However, he is conscious Scotland will have to perform at a high intensity for the entire duration of the game against redoubtable opponents who have scored vital late goals on three occasions in their campaign.
Aiden McGeady, the former Celtic forward who sat out training yesterday and is a doubtful starter due to a hamstring injury, netted a winner for the Republic in the final minute of regulation time against Georgia in Tblisi in September last year.
The following month, John O'Shea, the Sunderland centre half, struck in the fourth minute of added on time to earn Ireland a 1-1 draw with world champions Germany in Gelsinkirchen.
Shane Long, the Southampton striker, secured a point for his country against Poland in March when he put the ball in the back of the net in the 91st minute of a game in Dublin.
Strachan, who oversaw Scotland's narrow 1-0 triumph over their Celtic cousins at Parkhead in November, recognises that remaining focused will be crucial to his team's chances of success.
"I don't think their character is in doubt," he said. "If you look at the players there, that is never in doubt. I would like to think that they would think the same about us. But, yeah, the last five or 10 minutes are important.
"We have to deal with the rest first. The last five minutes could be irrelevant t one way or another if you don't do you job properly. That goes for both sides.
"So obviously if we are all doing our jobs properly we could still be in there for the last five minutes of the game. If you look at our games, we are still in there in the last five minutes we have played in every game we have played and so have Ireland been."
Scotland's supporters will be heavily outnumbered by their Republic of Ireland counterparts for the qualifying match in the 51,700-capacity Aviva Stadium this evening.
John Delaney, the chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland who has come under intense pressure to stand down after revealing his organisation accepted a €5 million loan from FIFA, reneged on a public guarantee to give Scotland a fair allocation.
The Tartan Army has been given just 3,500 briefs. However, the visitors are still expected to have in the region of 10,000 fans at the game and their manager is confident that backing will improve his side's chances of victory.
Scotland are level with Germany in second place in their section just a point behind leaders Poland at the halfway stage and there is growing excitement among their about the national team's prospects of reaching their first major finals since France '98.
"It's a help," said Strachan. "It's good to think we've created something that makes that number of people go to the game. It's a help, definitely, absolutely no doubt it's a help for us.
"It was the same in Germany and Poland and it was just fantastic. The German and Polish supporters were looking around at the lads with their kilts on thinking: 'I wish I was one of them.'"
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