THE old maxim – fail to prepare, prepare to fail – should be embroidered on to every Scotland shirt laid out for the next match Gordon Strachan's men will go into, against England at Wembley on August 14.

The man who orchestrated the sensational victory over Croatia in Zagreb to sign off a season of bitter disappointment with the salvaging of at least a vestige of national pride showed the value of hard work and planning.

It is not the length of time the squad is together, but how this time is put to use that matters.

And, as a man who has always enjoyed coaching and tholed the other aspects of being a manager, including dealing with the media when negativity is filling every interview room, Strachan intends to use every single minute he can arrange with his players to ensure the reversal of fortunes witnessed in Croatia is developed into a full-blown change of direction.

The win in Zagreb owed nothing to luck, but everything to good preparation, homework, discipline and commitment.

The fact the Croatians were so poor was largely down to how Scotland made them play, and look.

The performance franked Strachan's credentials as a coach at the very top level, and spiked the guns of the critics who were lining up to take pot shots at him and his players following the defeats against Wales and Serbia which had formally ended Scotland's hopes of staying in the race to Rio.

Unfortunately, the week Strachan was allowed to spend with his depleted squad was only possible because the club season had ended.

By the time he gets them back for the 'friendly' with England, the demands of their employers will again be heavy.

The game comes slap bang in the middle of the finale of the third round of qualifying matches for the Champions League and the first leg of the play-off round for the group stages.

Of course, given that so few players involved in Strachan's squad are at clubs who will be competing in Europe next season – take away those at Celtic, and Wigan, whose FA Cup win has opened the door to the Europa League, and you are left with very few, indeed – the commitments clash might not be as serious as it could have been.

But Strachan understands that, when it comes to time, club football is not going to stand still for the national team.

He is working hard to find a solution to this problem of making room in the calendar to get the squad together long enough to work on more than a quick run through of who picks up who at set-pieces.

What Strachan has already created is a desire to be part of what he is trying to achieve, and that showed in Zagreb where the absence of several first-picks for various reasons – some more legitimate than others – was nullified by a team spirit which is invaluable when you are jousting with giants, as Scotland now have to do on a regular basis.

The symmetry is there, with Strachan's first game in charge of Scotland delivering a 1-0 win against Estonia in a friendly at Aberdeen, and his most recent the same result – but with much more significance.

For Scotland as a nation, it was the best result since they won 1-0 in Paris in 2007.

For Strachan as a manager, it was on a par with the 1-0 win over Manchester United at Parkhead in 2006 to propel the club into the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time.

He achieved that result against all the odds, having come into a difficult situation the year before.

Picking up the pieces after Helicopter Sunday and the departure of Martin O'Neill, Strachan found himself with just 13 players who could claim first-team status.

Crashing out of Europe against Artmedia Bratislava, then losing his first Old Firm game, underlined how tough a job he had on his hands.

And, just as with Scotland after the back-to-back losses against Wales and Serbia, the doubters soon questioned if he was the right man for the job.

The answer soon arrived in the shape of a hat-trick of SPL titles, the first Celtic manager since Jock Stein to achieve this feat.

Now Strachan is again following in his footsteps, and will be content to make Scotland as competitive as they were under Stein, who included the little red-head in the squad he took to the World Cup in Spain in 1982, and who lent heavily on him as a key member of the team which went to Mexico four years later just after Stein's untimely death.

The slide has been arrested in so far as the victory in Zagreb has halted Scotland dropping into the bottom pot for the Euro 2016 campaign.

That, in itself, is a crucial, short-term achievement, and one which should be celebrated. Life is hard enough without having official confirmation that you are officially a minnow.

Egos have been left at the door, as requested by, among others, Neil Lennon. Only those with a genuine desire to put in a shift need report in future.

That does not exclude some of those who were missing from this latest game. But any who return now realise they must buy into the same commitment contract as those who replaced them on Friday.