What a difference a year can make.
Scotland’s hopes of reaching next summer’s World Cup finals in Russia appeared to be sinking without trace after their encounter with Slovakia in Trnava last October 11.
The 3-0 defeat came only three days after the Scots had dropped two points at home to Lithuania in a 1-1 draw at Hampden.
The poor start – which continued with a 3-0 defeat by England at Wembley the following month – made it seem highly unlikely that, with just two group games left, Gordon Strachan’s men would still have their play-off hopes in their own hands.
A burst of form has reignited the Dark Blues campaign, with Scotland taking 10 points from a possible 12 in their mosr recent four games.
But Scotland must defeat Slovakia in the return match at Hampden Park tonight in order to have any chance of staying on track going into Sunday’s final group match against Slovenia in Ljubljana.
Having stayed in contention for a play-off place, Strachan stressed his players have come through some tense games in which defeat would have thwarted the nation’s dream of its football team reaching a first major tournament in 20 years at a humiliatingly early stage of the campaign.
Strachan said: “We really need to know we could have been out of this thing four or five games ago. There was more pressure than now.
“There is still pressure now, no doubt about it, but there is more excitement about it than the real nitty gritty we had three or four games ago.”
The Scots look a different side from the one that fell to defeat in Slovakia – full of confidence and appearing to carry a far greater goalscoring menace.
Even before Scotland found their feet, Strachan did not feel the heavy defeat 12 months ago reflected the difference between the sides.
He added: “There were bits in the Slovakia game when we watched it again where we got to areas where we wanted to get to. We knew we could get there but we did not produce in the final third. That was our fault as a group.
“I feel we can make chances against anyone. Looking back at it as a coach, the way we started, I was thinking it was fine. We have done better there defensively for their first goal but attacking wise it was all right.
“Then it got to 2-0 and it became a really hard game.”
Strachan says his players can go a long way to taking their fate to the final match by winning the phy-sical duel with Jan Kozak’s Slovak side.
He said: “So many games are decided on set-plays – we have to have a certain amount of height in the team, unless we are Barcelona where the other team is only going to get two corner kicks.
“We don’t think we have to belt balls on to people’s heads all day. It just comes in handy if we have a certain amount of height. Ask any coach in the world and they, if the other team has at least five people in the box, would want at least five people who can compete against them.
“We have to look at that sometimes unless we are Man City or Barcelona where we are going to have all the ball anyway. That’s a wee bit different.”