Strachan still smarting over Clyde defeat

In the case of Gordon Strachan, part of his psyche will forever be consumed by the events which transpired one bright, chilly afternoon in Cumbernauld in January 2006. The story of how Roy Keane's debut for the club went south in a Scottish Cup tie against a makeshift, ramshackle Clyde outfit is well-known, but it acquired a new relevance this week as the Scotland manager prepared for the home banker par excellence against Gibraltar a week today.

"The funny thing is that when you go back and look at it now, you think 'it was what it was'," said Strachan, as he recalled the Parkhead club's shock 2-1 defeat that day. "They had the lad [Craig] Bryson, he was brilliant. Tam Brighton played the game of his season. We played on a pitch that was rock hard - and I had a midfield of [Shunsuke] Nakamura, Keane and Neil Lennon. So it wasn't all my fault!"

It seems incredible to say it but failing to win against a clutch of game part-timers drawn from a 2.3 square mile rocky piece of land with a population base of 30,000 and no pedigree in international football whatsoever would be worse still. Strachan, who also talks of a penalty he put beyond Pierluigi Benedettini, a bus driver from San Marino, which ended an increasingly queasy stalemate in a 1991 European Championships qualifier, knows it won't take long for anxiety to spread around the national stadium.

"They are strange, strange games these ones - where you have a real underdog and a real favourite," said Strachan. "And it's very hard to deal with it, even with the media. The whole thing is stranger than normal. We're expected to win and win handsomely but at the same time I've got to have press conferences and respect the people we're playing against. There's absolutely no doubt about that, with media footwork, you can say something that you think is respectful and then you can turn round and go, 'that doesn't sound so great, that'"

Gibraltar have yet to rack up a competitive point or goal but one will come along sooner or later. "If you look at international football over the last few years there have been some strange, strange results going about," said Strachan. "The Faroes beating Greece? And I would say that after three minutes the crowd will get restless here - three minutes max. The players have to be above that and we have to assure them that's going to happen because that is what we are as supporters. It was the same in Germany when the Germans played them.

"Listen - all we can do is keep to the same standard as we have produced over the last four qualifying games and over the last 18 months," he added. "If we can keep to that standard then we'll get a favourable result. If something really strange happens then we'll have to deal with that but at this moment in time, I'm looking for the same performances that we've had. It will be a bit different because there have been teams that have come and attacked us - even Georgia had a go - but our performances kept teams back."

This last comment, along with the inclusion of players such as Jordan Rhodes and Ross McCormack, suggests Scotland could alter their typical Strachan formation and go with two up front. "We had an idea for the Gibraltar game a couple of months ago, myself, Mark [McGhee, the assistant] and Stuart [McCall]," said Strachan. "We all thought it was good and that idea might be enough to inject a bit of life into the training. But we'll do both. We'll go into what we normally do but we'll have a look at this other system as well."

Thankfully for the Scotland manager, he has an additional match to take his mind off things, in the form of Wednesday night's Hampden friendly against Northern Ireland. Not only did Strachan sign his opposite number Michael O'Neill in his past life at Coventry, there are special mentions for Chris Baird, who was handed only his second senior start of his career in the 2003 FA Cup final by Strachan for Southampton, West Brom's Chris Brunt and two players who thwarted him on occasion across the Old Firm divide in the form of Steven Davis and Kyle Lafferty.

"Steven is a terrific player, who's got better and better as his career has gone on," said Strachan. "He found confidence at Rangers and he took it to Southampton. Brunt's a terrific player - real good - and their centre-half, Evans, is quality, Chris Baird, too, Aaron Hughes. They've got Niall McGinn and Kyle Lafferty. He's done well for them. Sometimes international football suits players a bit better."

The match is a bit of phoney war, and there will be some ad hoc consultation between the respective managers before the teams are named. "There will be players who need a rest for the Northern Ireland game and I know Michael will have the same issue," said Strachan. "Others will need minutes on the pitch to prepare them for the Gibraltar game. But I want to try and get as many people as I can in a strip and on the pitch. [Steven] Fletcher is having a tough time at Sunderland - but everyone is having a tough time at Sunderland right now."