THE manager bounds into the media room and confesses to the world:

"Geez if that Georgia boy had scored with that great chance at the end this whole campaign could have been shot."

Except, of course, he did not. Gordon Strachan knows the margins of football, invoked the blessings of the football gods in a news conference last week and accepts the reality of the bottom line.

He blithely told the world that Scotland were brilliant for an hour, playing the best football of his tenure, and left to prepare for a match against Poland tonight that will make different demands on himself, his staff and his players.

There was an unusual reaction to all of this on Saturday night. Some insist Scotland were confident and enterprising until affected by the tension that a one-goal lead induces. Others expressed concern about the inability to dismiss a poor Georgian side and the carelessness of some of the passing, particularly in attacking areas.

The conversations were prolonged, invariably interesting. Not one word from the camp followers matters, of course.

Scotland won. Strachan informed his players publicly they were great and the momentum continues as the mountain that is Warsaw grows considerably in the wake of Poland's defeat of the world champions.

Strachan was man of the match on Saturday. His mere presence on the touchline was cited by some of his players as an inspiration. Crucially, every decision he made was proved correct. He was right to play one Fletcher and drop another, he was right, too, to make defensive substitutions as the game wound down. He has not shirked one difficult decision in his tenure.

The former Aberdeen and Manchester United midfielder is a better player than any of the contemporary Scotland team, though at 57 his pace may be slightly diminished. His triumph is that he has not used this pre-eminence to diminish his players - in the manner of a Glenn Hoddle, for example - but quietly employed it to galvanise them. He knows as a player how qualifying groups can be successfully negotiated. He has, too, as a club manager led Celtic twice into the knockout stages of the Champions League.

But where he has excelled is in using his managerial experience to bring out the best in resources that are limited, conspicuously so in certain positions. Strachan, the wonder player, has been forged by lessons of a lifetime in football.

His experience at Celtic was testing, both professionally and privately. He faced criticism, even in the face of successive championships, and had fall-outs with the old guard and the new Bhoys. His subsequent tenure at Middlesborough was simply a disaster.

He cannot escape blame for much of this but he has not been unduly disturbed by the triumphs or the losses. He has steered a singular course and learned from both the good and the bad. He has the capacity to be abrasive, the tendency to be stubborn in opinion but both those traits have been softened.

The latter is the most significant development. Strachan once famously questioned the accepted wisdom that Scotland had a pool of bright talent in the shape of such as Ryan Gauld, Stuart Armstrong, Andrew Robertson and Stevie May. Yet he has cleverly brought all on board without gambling with some of them in terms of playing time.

May and Gauld have received words of praise but not one minute of action. Both will feel valued but Strachan has not compromised his beliefs to accommodate popular opinion.

He has been adventurous. Robertson has been given his chance and, despite defensive frailties that can be remedied through coaching, looks like the Scotland left full-back for an era.

More intriguingly, Ikechi Anya, the 26-year-old Watford winger, has been picked for eight internationals, including the match against Germany in Dortmund.

His presence brought a fine goal and the ultimately dashed hope of a draw. But the significance of his inclusion was almost missed in the heat of battle. Strachan had picked a slight, Championship winger to face the best team in the world when the easier choice would have been to bolster the midfield with a worker.

This shows Strachan's growing adventure as a coach. He has always been a planner with assistants and players talking about the precision and the focus of his sessions.

But he has addressed his failings. There was a rigidity, even a conservatism to his style at Celtic and there was the capacity to alienate some players even as others regarded him as a mentor. He is now more prepared to be pro-active in tactics, while accepting that his best intentions have had to have been influenced by a necessary pragmatism. He envisaged, for example, a Scotland style of playing it out from the back before the first 20 minutes of the match against Wales showed he would be safer juggling chainsaws blindfolded on the touchline.

He travels to Poland this morning with players encouraged by his presence and praise but with, pertinently, three points on the board. He will make the dutiful noises pre-match but knows this is all about the action in Warsaw stadium tomorrow night.

This Euro 2016 qualifying group may all be in the lap of the gods but Strachan has given a form and a strategy to Scotland that provide the precarious stability of hope amid the capricious winds of top-class football.