Impressive runs of goalscoring form have earned Stoke's Charlie Adam and Celtic striker Leigh Griffiths international recalls ahead of Scotland's key European Championship Group D qualifier in Dublin.
In his initial squad of 26, Gordon Strachan includes 10 of the players who started at Hampden Park against Ireland in November, as well as one of the substitutes, with Blackburn defender Grant Hanley and Derby County striker Chris Martin the two who miss out due to injury.
Griffiths, though, is rewarded for his 15 goals in 21 games for the SPL champions, while Adam also returns thanks to a strong run for Stoke, with five goals in seven games from midfield, including a contender for strike of the season against Chelsea last month.
“I saw Charlie play recently,” said Strachan yesterday. “We all saw his wonder goal against Chelsea. But there’s more to it than that. There’s been a consistency to Charlie’s performances and he has found a position at Stoke that suits him. It’s been a good two months for Charlie, that’s for sure.
“Leigh is also hitting form just at the right time. He’ll be fresh because he didn’t play too many games at the beginning of the season. If you remember back two years ago to when Barry Bannan was on holiday and we called him in. Then after watching him train we decided he had to go into the team that faced Croatia.
“So we set a precedent that day that you can win a place if you impress at training. Charlie and Leigh have been here before. If I felt they didn’t have a chance of playing I would have brought in some younger guys to fill up those spaces.”
Convince While Hanley's recent appearance for the Blackburn under-21s appears to have come marginally too late to convince Strachan he will be ready for the Ireland game, Charlie Mulgrew makes the cut despite his 45 minutes for Celtic being the first competitive football he has played in five months.
“They would not have put him in if he was not right,” said Strachan. “He was a huge asset for us when we played the Republic last time – and I mean huge.
“I thought he had a terrific game and just having Charlie in the squad makes us stronger. Not just in midfield but in other positions too.”
Important players struggling for full fitness is just one of the concerns that Strachan has in common with O’Neill as he prepares for the June 13th game.
Several of his squad are with Championship clubs that have already been out of season for a couple of weeks, something the Scot admits will play a major part in shaping his preparations for the game.
He also has the questions of "nationality" and eligibility" to contend as Matt Ritchie is again included.
Crossed the border
The 25-year-old Bournemouth winger, who ended the season with 15 goals in 53 games for the Championship table toppers, qualifies to play for Scotland due to his Edinburgh-born father and grandparents.
However, when he was named by Strachan in a squad for the first time in March – he went on to make his debut against Northern Ireland – it emerged he had never crossed the border from England.
Strachan has other issues to deal with just now too, with the friendly against Qatar that precedes the trip to Ireland raising plenty of questions at yesterday’s squad announcement given the news that a number of BBC journalists had been arrested in the country while researching a story about World Cup-related labour practices.
Predictably, the former Coventry City, Southampton and Celtic manager preferred not to speak about events in the country. “There are other people more qualified and with more information to talk about politics,” he said. “I have times when I think about politics and this is definitely not one of them.
“There are times when I sit down and moan at the television on politics. I’ve had a month of moaning about politics; me and my wife sitting in front of the TV moaning and groaning at everybody. But this is a time to say: ‘listen, we’re going to have a good game of football here’.”
