It might only be classed as a friendly, but Scotland boss Gordon Strachan insists he has a squad eager to impress in tonight’s fixture with Northern Ireland.
After linking up with the team ahead of this evening’s match, the national manager admitted to being taken aback by the energy and enthusiasm of his players as they all aim to stake a claim for a starting place in Sunday’s all-important Euro 2016 qualifier with Gibraltar.
And that has given him some important decisions to make as he prepares for two home games which will once again help gauge how far Scotland have progressed during his tenure.
He explained: “At training, I had to cram four things into a certain amount of time and I thought: ‘Can we really push them to do this?’
“But I kid you not, after we did those four things, they would have gone another half hour.
“Jim Fleeting (SFA director of football development) was there as well and he couldn’t believe the intensity of the training.
“It’s amazing, considering some of them have played 40 games in the Championship, and nobody was giving an inch from either side.
“So it was a terrific and if we can take that on to the Northern Ireland game then it would be terrific.
“The squad has surprised me with their enthusiasm because I thought after four months and all the games they’ve played in between that it would be all about rest and talking, but their energy is fantastic.
“When I got here I thought that I’ll need to protect these players for their run-ins, for league championships or play-offs.
“But they don’t seem to want protected and most of them are happy and just want to play.
“I don’t know the reason for it is it just natural enthusiasm, enjoying working with each other?
“I don’t know the answer, but I don’t think we should analyse it too much, we should just let it flow.”