Gordon Strachan hints at extending Scotland contract and says he hopes to

“But we understand that there are a few right good players in the Polish side”. Everything we’ve had had to be really earned. “Arkadiusz Milik and Maciej Rybus unfortunately will not be available to play tomorrow”, confirmed Nawalka who will likely bring Artur Sobiech into the side.

The Poland striker has demanded a strong referee in the European Championship qualifier at Hampden after complaining he could not run properly during last year’s 2-2 draw against Scotland in Warsaw following a tackle by Gordon Greer.

McLeish, who led the nation in 2007 and failed to qualify for Euro 2008, added: “I think he should stay”.

“We are certainly anticipating a very hard game with a lot of energy and fight”, he said after smiling.

You could perhaps argue that Scotland’s lack of points on the board going into a crucial make-or-break qualifier may have also had something to do with it, but hey ho.

Strachan’s own future is unclear as his contract expires following the campaign, which ends against Gibraltar in Faro on Sunday, but he was in no mood to address that topic.

In the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, he scored five in the one game against Wolfsburg as he became the fastest foreign player to score 100 Bundesliga goals late last month.

“I think we thought we would get something from the Germany game but we didn’t, so we hoping that it might just turn in our favour given the other game [Ireland v Germany]”. We’ve taken points off Ireland and Poland but they’ve beaten Georgia and we haven’t.

As the game neared the end, the Scots had already assumed a win, when Lewandowski broke through the hosts’ defence, smuggling the ball into the net.

Gordon Strachan’s side started the game in fourth place and while there were several permutations which would see them win a play-off spot, they knew one certainty – defeat and hopes of reaching the finals were over.

Robert Lewandowski believes things will unravel for Scotland if they target him early on Thursday.

“It’s all down to us”.

He said on Wednesday: “I don’t know the officials, or who is refereeing, I don’t care”.

“Take that out, we win over there and it’s a totally different scenario against Poland”.

The home fans suddenly found their voice as they savoured the prospect of a famous victory, which would have grown closer had Fletcher’s header from an Alan Hutton cross not gone straight to the Poland keeper.