GORDON Strachan today described Scotland's performance in their 3-0 win over Lithuania in Vilnius as the best of his time in charge and admitted he was now excited about their Russia 2018 qualification hopes.

The national team triumphed in the Group F match in the LFF Stadium tast night hanks to first half goals from Stuart Armstrong and Andy Robertson and a second half strike from James McArthur.

The victory keeps alive their chances of finishing runners-up in their section and clinching a play-off spot - even though current second-placed side Slovakia beat Slovenia to remain four points clear of them.

Scotland take on Malta at Hampden on Monday evening at the same time as Slovakia play England at Wembley and Strachan believes the outlook is far brighter after watching his men dominate Lithuania

“I was really pleased," he said. "At one point I could become a spectator and enjoy the football. It is not often you can do that as a manager. But it was a performance that allowed me to do that. They were excellent.

“In pure footballing terms I think it was the best performance. We have had footballing performances and have not produced chances. But we have also had gritty performances that we can all remember about Germany and Croatia and England.

"Coming to a place where Slovakia won 2-1 and Slovenia drew 2-2 and playing a team England only scored a couple of goals against was hard.

“But their energy was key. They have got a bit of technical ability, but our main objective tonight was to use our energy. The team has changed dramatically in the last 18 months with the energy we have got in it. You can see the energy really.

"Technically it was good, but I think the energy blew the Lithuania team away. Add that energy plus the ability and it gave them a hard night.

"There had to be a lot of hard work to get to that point where we use that technical ability and you could see at the end they still have energy.”

Asked if he was optimistic about Scotland being able to catch Slovakia, who they play at Hampden in their penultimate match next month, Strachan said: "Obviously we have been playing so well in the last three games - I like the new energy in the team and the two young full-backs (Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney) are coming on. Terrific.

"I think we are all feeling a bit like that, everybody sitting here, everybody watching are just feeling, ‘okay, we are getting better and better'.

"You just go out and play. You never know what’s going to happen. It’s getting there. We are a challenging side in the group stage and maybe a couple of months ago we didn’t see that. There is a bit of excitement."

He added: “Any momentum can really only last for a day. We now need to get right back into it on Saturday and see how they feel for Monday night. But they should be feeling good about themselves, everybody should be.

“When we got together on Monday we asked if we thought we could win and the answer was yes. Did I think we were improving? Yes I thought we were improving. Did I think we were going to have that many attempts on goal? Maybe not really.

“But it came and we had a varied attack from different angles. We weren’t one dimensional or relying on one person. I think everybody joined in.”

Strachan singled out Celtic midfielder Armstrong, who netted his first goal for his country in only his third appearance, and Crystal Palace man McArthur , who recovered after a bad start, for special praise.

“Stuart is a top player and he’s come on in the last year," he said. "He wasn’t on the radar and not getting a regular game at Celtic. But he’s done well.

“But I must say I thought one of the stand-out performers was James McArthur. After the first 15 minutes I was thinking ‘oh’, but he came back and that’s mental strength.

“For James to start not so great and come back said a lot for him. His mates looked after him but he gave us back by scoring a good goal. He got it because of his energy.”