THE sun was shining, the birds were singing and Mar Hall Hotel by the Clyde glittered under its five stars.

It was a time to be positive. "Why can't Allan McGregor have the best game he's ever had in a Scotland shirt?" asked Stuart McCall of his press interrogators, who threatened to cast a pall over the lead-up to the qualifier against Croatia on Friday.

The Motherwell manager's sentiment over the goalkeeper was made in the midst of an upbeat assessment of Scotland but its very content revealed that the national team is braced for a turbulent night in Zagreb against a side who need to win by three goals to top the group.

They will face a Scotland team stripped of its best players in Darren Fletcher, Steven Fletcher and Scott Brown. They may face a left-back in Steven Hammell who is 31 and has only one cap, that having come against Sweden in 2004 in a 4-1 defeat. They will be relaxed about confronting a combined squad that has scored 14 goals in international football. Scotland, too, sit with two points in Group A, 14 behind the Croats. Croatia are fourth in the FIFA world rankings, Scotland are 78th tucked in among the Cape Verde Islands, Togo and Jordan.

It was reasonable, then, to posit a question in fitba' vernacular. Did McCall fear a doing?

"To be honest, we can't focus on that. If we start as a coaching staff thinking it's going to be a long night, we can't portray or feel that," he said. "We've just got to believe the players we send out there can be the best they can be, be as difficult to play against as they can possibly be. If we did that and came away with a draw we'd surprise a lot of people."

This assessment may qualify for the understatement of the year. No one outside the Scotland camp believes the match offers the national team anything other than further pain. However, it will be approached with the strange mix of clinical meticulousness and burning passion that marks Gordon Strachan as a coach. He has brought in a regime of two training sessions a day and has encouraged players to strengthen both individual will and the communal team spirit. It is worth mentioning that Scotland players cleared the pitch at Mar Hall of snow and trained on the morning after the desperate defeat by Wales at Hampden in March.

The sun shone on their exertions yesterday and McCall was determined to match the weather with his mood. "As a staff and a group we can't have those negative thoughts; we've got to be as well prepared as we possibly can, have a plan which we work on. We've got to make sure the lads are prepared and we've got to be confident that they can be the best they can be," he said.

He underlined the obvious when he evaluated the differences in the teams. "If we can get them being the best they can be and Croatia are the best they can be then it's going to be a long night, obviously," he said. McCall then invoked the history of successful underdogs and called on the players' to have both the faith in their abilities and the expectation that there could just be a positive result on offer on Friday evening. "There's no point in going there is we can't believe that," he said.

Yet Scotland have failed to win in this qualifying campaign and take a weakened team to Zagreb to meet a side fighting to qualify. This is enough to cause a shiver on a summer's day.

"We can't look on it as doom and gloom, we've got to be as bright and positive as we can," said McCall. "As an individual you've just got to be the best you can be. Why can't Allan McGregor have the best game he's ever had in a Scotland shirt? But we need a lot of them to play at their maximum."

The most-capped player in the squad is Alan Hutton with 31 and such has been his form that he is far from certain to start. Russell Martin, with four previous caps, and Grant Hanley, with six, are genuine contenders for a defence that must expect to be put under pressure from an adventurous Croatia side.

"It's going to be a chance for a few players, one or two will be making their debuts, maybe a couple that have not played many times," said McCall. "It's down to them to be the best they can be and come back with a positive result."

His verdict was blunt. "There's no getting about it it's going to be a tough night."

It may be traditionally Caledonian to frown at his optimism but it is impossible to argue with that conclusion.