THE sense of anticipation among the 2,000 or so Scotland supporters who have travelled to Georgia to back their national team in their latest Euro 2016 qualifier is palpable.

Gordon Strachan’s charges have put themselves in a position to progress to the finals in France next year after winning three, drawing two and losing just one – to World Cup winners Germany away in their opening fixture – of their games so far.

Victory over the second bottom side in Group D in the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena here this evening will increase the expectations of fans who have grown accustomed to crushing disappointment and abject failure in recent years further still.

Strachan can do nothing to subdue the excitement of the Tartan Army – nor does he have any desire to – but he believes tempering the eagerness of his players to perform well and succeed will be crucial to their chances of prevailing.

The temperature here has soared well into the thirties and while the match will get underway at eight o’clock local time the conditions will still be a major consideration in his game plan against Kakhaber Tskhadadze’s side.

“The only thing that’s a wee bit different about this game is the heat,” said Strachan. “Because we are a nation that’s on the go all the time. We do everything quickly. We talk quickly, we eat quickly, everything we do is quick. It’s very hard for us to slow down.

“It’ll be a wee bit cooler and kick off time though and we’ve also got enough water with us to sink the Titanic. If there’s one thing we’ve got it’s water!

“We like to play at a tempo, but there are times when that tempo doesn’t help you. Sometimes we have to slow it down a bit. We always want to get the ball and go there as quick as you can. Sometimes you can’t go as quick as you can.”

Scotland have long been renowned as a wholehearted but limited international team who compensate effectively for the absence of a world class talent by working hard and being well organised.

Their manager, though, has faith that every one of the players he names in the starting line-up and on the substitutes bench will be able to resist their natural inclination to put in a tireless shift and play a more considered game.

“Sometimes you need to take your time on the ball if you can,” said Strachan. “That’s something we work on in training all the time, to try and calm us down. What we know is that in the team, every player on the pitch can look after the ball.”

This match against Georgia in Tbilisi is widely perceived to be an excellent opportunity to pick up three invaluable points away from home – something which Scotland have, despite fine displays against Germany, Poland and the Republic of Ireland, been unable to in Group D so far – and strengthen their prospects of automatic qualification.

Strachan, though, feels opponents who have been buoyed by the appointment of their former defender Tskhadadze as manager at the end of last year occupy a misleading position in their section and is anticipating a highly demanding 90 minutes.

“They are strong, they’re organised, they’re also feeling quite good about themselves,” he said. “The Georgians are strong guys and they have a real pride in their team. I can see that. They were desperately disappointed to lose to us at our place (Scotland won 1-0 at Ibrox in October).

“I was on the pitch when they were coming off and they were really angry and down because they’d put a lot into the game. They have good attacking wing-backs with a couple of individual lads who can do well. But I think while our players know about these things, we’ve been doing a lot of work on what we do. A lot of work.”

Strachan is every bit as patriotic as any one of the Tam O’Shanter-sporting Tartan Army footsoldiers who will pack the away section in the 54,549-capacity stadium and relishes the hype which is growing around Scotland’s campaign.

It is, for a man who won 50 caps for his country and played in two World Cup finals, very much preferable to, as was so often the case under his predecessors Berti Vogts, George Burley and Craig Levein, having no chance of qualifying at this stage

“Sometimes we’re out of the running by this point,” he said. “Then everything is negative, but it’s still all positive in terms of performances and the excitement for everybody. There are a lot of groups where fans, coaches and journalists are thinking: ‘This is boring now’. But we’re one of four teams who can qualify.

“I’d like a lot easier group. Absolutely. But this is it. This is what we do. And if it wasn’t for the players doing so well then we’d be out of it. We’ve played the world champions, the Poles who are improving and the Republic of Ireland who are tough but I think we can take solace from the fact we’ve improved too over the last 18 months.”

Strachan is correctly focusing fully on Scotland and offered no opinion on the outcome of a match between Germany – who his side take on in the second leg of this Euro 2016 qualifying double header at Hampden on Monday evening – and Poland in Frankfurt tonight which will have a significant bearing on the fortunes of his own team.

“I honestly haven’t looked at it,” he said. “I really couldn’t tell you. It wasn’t until last week that I knew that it was Poland and Germany playing on Friday. I’m completely blinkered. I just go: ‘Let’s plod on and see where we end up’.”

“It’s the most difficult group out there, I’d say. But that’s because of Germany being in a transitional period after winning the World Cup. Poland, too, have improved vastly over the last two years and hopefully we have too. You’ve also got the Irish who are always a hard team to beat. They’re always in there causing havoc.

“Even Georgia, as I’ve said, have been good at times. The Republic needed a super goal from Aiden (McGeady) to beat them and Poland scored three of their goals in the last four minutes.

“I think we’d be disappointed if the performance isn’t good. If the performance is good and we get something from the game then that’s all you can ask the players.”