SCOTLAND BOSS GORDON Strachan refused to be drawn on yesterday’s off-the-field incident involving Roy Keane, joking that he has problems of his own with number two Mark McGhee.
The past 24 hours haven’t been ideal preparations for the Ireland camp ahead of their qualifier in Glasgow tomorrow night as police were called after an alleged bust-up between Keane and a fan outside the team hotel in Portmarnock.
Strachan was unwilling to discuss whether it would cause disruption for their opponents but revealed that he and McGhee often have heated exchanges over… Scrabble.
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“I’ve got to deal with McGhee everyday playing Scrabble,” he laughed. “When you get beat by him, it’s a nightmare so I’ve had my own problems as well. Two hours of Scrabble last night and I got beat. I wasn’t a happy man.”
The other major development today was news that O’Neill will have to prepare without midfielder pair James McCarthy and Glenn Whelan, who both returned to their clubs for treatment after failing to recover in time to travel.
It is undoubtedly a blow to the Boys in Green but Strachan believes that putting too much focus on the opposition can often prove pointless.
“I know they’ve got a terrific squad,” he said. “They’ve got a good group of players and I’ve never looked at any of that. We practiced for three days here the last time to play against three centre-backs over five training sessions but within a minute we realised that Georgia were playing with a back four, so that was good.
“You really can’t plan too much in advance. You see what’s on the pitch at the time, then you deal with that. The players have to deal with it first and you have a look at it as well.
“The pitch tomorrow night will be filled with good players with good attitudes, no matter. We’ve got 50 players between us and whatever 22 play, it will be a good game of football.”
Like Ireland, Strachan will be forced to reshuffle his pack slightly due to a couple of injuries.
The absence of both Aston Villa’s Alan Hutton and Phil Bardsley of Stoke City means he is likely to turn to Stephen Whittaker at right full-back but he won’t announce his team selection until an hour before kick-off.
“That’s up until Friday when you see them all coming through the door. Then you’ve got a right good idea what it’s going to be.
“I know how we’ve got to try and play. We’ve got a couple of systems we use but I’ve clear my mind. Obviously in the last couple of days we’ve had a few knocks and you put your thinking cap on just in case but I’ve got a clear idea what we’re doing.”
It’s not just Martin O’Neill who’s having problems with his assistant manager...
by Ben Blake reporting from Glasgow
SCOTLAND BOSS GORDON Strachan refused to be drawn on yesterday’s off-the-field incident involving Roy Keane, joking that he has problems of his own with number two Mark McGhee.
The past 24 hours haven’t been ideal preparations for the Ireland camp ahead of their qualifier in Glasgow tomorrow night as police were called after an alleged bust-up between Keane and a fan outside the team hotel in Portmarnock.
Strachan was unwilling to discuss whether it would cause disruption for their opponents but revealed that he and McGhee often have heated exchanges over… Scrabble.
“I’ve got to deal with McGhee everyday playing Scrabble,” he laughed. “When you get beat by him, it’s a nightmare so I’ve had my own problems as well. Two hours of Scrabble last night and I got beat. I wasn’t a happy man.”
The other major development today was news that O’Neill will have to prepare without midfielder pair James McCarthy and Glenn Whelan, who both returned to their clubs for treatment after failing to recover in time to travel.
It is undoubtedly a blow to the Boys in Green but Strachan believes that putting too much focus on the opposition can often prove pointless.
“I know they’ve got a terrific squad,” he said. “They’ve got a good group of players and I’ve never looked at any of that. We practiced for three days here the last time to play against three centre-backs over five training sessions but within a minute we realised that Georgia were playing with a back four, so that was good.
“You really can’t plan too much in advance. You see what’s on the pitch at the time, then you deal with that. The players have to deal with it first and you have a look at it as well.
“The pitch tomorrow night will be filled with good players with good attitudes, no matter. We’ve got 50 players between us and whatever 22 play, it will be a good game of football.”
Like Ireland, Strachan will be forced to reshuffle his pack slightly due to a couple of injuries.
The absence of both Aston Villa’s Alan Hutton and Phil Bardsley of Stoke City means he is likely to turn to Stephen Whittaker at right full-back but he won’t announce his team selection until an hour before kick-off.
“That’s up until Friday when you see them all coming through the door. Then you’ve got a right good idea what it’s going to be.
“I know how we’ve got to try and play. We’ve got a couple of systems we use but I’ve clear my mind. Obviously in the last couple of days we’ve had a few knocks and you put your thinking cap on just in case but I’ve got a clear idea what we’re doing.”
‘Tomorrow, it’s not going to be Celtic Park. Tomorrow, it will be Scotland’s park.’ – Strachan
‘It’s just another game’ – Aiden McGeady on Scotland clash
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Euro 2016 Qualifiers Having words SCOIRL Ireland Republic Scotland