Scotland confident of keeping unbeaten home record

So delicately poised is Group D that the mantra of requiring wins in home ties is being temporarily suspended by Scotland assistant manager Mark McGhee for the meeting of the Celtic cousins next month.

Martin O'Neill's side make the trip to Parkhead on November 14th holding a three-point lead over the Scots, skewed to a degree by their advantage of having already faced Gibraltar.

While victory in 29 days would draw the Scots level with the Irish on points and provide a psychological edge in the battle between the rivals, the Scottish camp were keen to dampen expectations derived from the pressure of playing at home.

Protecting their 13-month unbeaten record in Glasgow represents the priority against Ireland rather than securing the three points. “We won’t be even at the midway point of the campaign after playing Ireland, so I don’t consider it a game we have to win,” reasoned McGhee after Tuesday’s 2-2 draw away to Poland.

“Ireland getting a point in Germany and ourselves drawing with Poland sets up this fixture nicely. What a game we have now in the offing. It’s a fixture the players are all excited about.

“What I am certain of, however, is if there is a winner from the game between us and Ireland, they’ll be in a great position to go on and qualify. Poland are a decent team, too, and will be there until the end.”

Striker Steven Naismith shares McGhee's long-term philosophy, preferring to highlight the evolution of a squad under Gordon Strachan that has lost just one of their last nine games, that the narrow defeat to world champions Germany five weeks ago.

"I think it's too early in the campaign to be talking about needing to beat Ireland," said the clubmate of Ireland's Everton trio, James McCarthy, Séamus Coleman and Darron Gibson.

“There’s been a maturing of our squad in the last year, shown again in how we picked up four points against Georgia and Poland this week. Leading against Georgia at home, we had to hold on at the end, whereas in Poland, the team bounced back from conceding an early goal.

“I’ve said from the start of the campaign that our home form will be the key, so we’ve a lot to be confident about.”