I T was a wee bit before 10pm on that ugly, rain-soaked night in Cardiff when the cries went up "Rubbish, Scotland, absolutely rubbish.

Time's up. Levein out"; "That's the World Cup gone" and "What they need to do is write off the rest of this campaign and start planning for the Euros. Give the new guy all the time he needs . . . "

Amid all the anger and frustration which comes from failure in yet another qualification campaign there is a sense of release, as well. Catharsis, even. Cardiff was the night fans flushed away Craig Levein's Scotland and looked around for a way to make things better.

Levein hung on for a few more weeks after losing to two late Gareth Bale goals that night in Wales but it was all over. The country spoke and he was removed. And that was the straightforward part. It's the idea of writing off nearly two years of football, until the Euro 2016 qualifiers begin, that always looked far easier in theory than in practice.

The Scottish Football Association didn't headhunt Gordon Strachan because they were impressed by his capacity for cynicism, but he is as streetwise and battle-weary as the best of them and the suggestion he "take all the time he needs" would have been taken with an enormous pinch of salt. Strachan is the 16th permanent Scotland manager since the days when the team was chosen by a selection committee and none of his predecessors ever inherited a weaker squad. Yes, arithmetically, they could still have recovered to qualify when he took over in January but, in the real world, they were dead and buried.

What Strachan may have sensed already, and if not it may become apparent to him soon enough, is that the idea of "writing off a campaign" clashes pretty violently with the impatience and demanding nature of most supporters in this country. If the concept of writing off a campaign means anything, then presumably it is to have some licence to experiment with personnel and tactics; bring new players in and see if they can handle it, try three at the back, or 4-2-3-1, whatever, be prepared to tolerate some setbacks, maybe sore ones, in the pursuit of eventual improvement. Sounds nice, doesn't it? In fact, Strachan is far too hard-nosed to regard that notion as anything other than a dreamy la-la land entirely dislocated from the reality he faces over the coming months.

While it is obvious and understandable that until now he has been operating in a critical amnesty of sorts, with neither supporters nor the media inclined to deliver any great declarations, Strachan is wise enough to realise that should not be mistaken for the country shrugging its shoulders and happily submitting to one uninspired, plodding display after another. Scotland have played three times under him so far. There was a friendly victory over Estonia on a horrible playing surface in Aberdeen, and then competitive defeats at home to Wales (parts of which eye-wateringly poor) and in Serbia, the latter delivering the ignominy of confirming Scotland as the first of all the Uefa entrants to formally have the door to the World Cup closed on them.

There has yet to be the "new manager bounce" which immediately follows an appointment – the premature retirement of Kris Commons wasn't his fault but compounded the feeling that things aren't going to get better any time soon – and it is demoralising to accept that any evidence of improvement against Croatia on Friday probably will be measured only by recording a narrow defeat rather than a heavy one. With Darren Fletcher, Scott Brown and Steven Fletcher the most prominent of the absentees from his squad, and others having to wrestle thoughts away from their holidays and on to a dead rubber they will regard privately as a nuisance, Scotland look hopelessly impoverished against the joint leaders of Group A. After six games, Croatia have 16 points and Scotland two. There should be street parties across this country if those statistics don't stand at 19-2 by late Friday evening.

No-one with an appreciation of the relative resources will get on Strachan's case if there is a defeat by the country currently ranked No.4 in the world by Fifa, but, even so, there do need to be some green shoots on Friday. Scotland's remaining fixtures this year are this one in Zagreb, England at Wembley in August, Belgium at home then Macedonia away in September, Croatia at home in the final qualifier in October and then a probable friendly in November. None of the confirmed games look very likely to deliver a victory, although the game in Skopje on September 10 is more promising than the others.

What Strachan cannot afford is for his teams to simply ricochet through this handful of games with no discernible evidence of recovery or improvement. Scotland, even in defeat, must start to show signs of structure, character and belief. The players must show that they are responding and being motivated by him. Otherwise impatience and frustration will dictate that Strachan will pretty soon be told it's time he started delivering. Questions will be asked of him.

The country has never before been out of a tournament with so many games still to play, which means the whole concept of suspending judgment and blithely "writing off the rest of the campaign" is unfamiliar, and jarring.

It's something else this country isn't likely to do particularly well.