NEW Scotland coach Gordon Strachan was the architect of the stunning victory over Croatia by hammering his message home to the players in a week of intense training sessions and preparation.

Midfielder James McArthur revealed that spending more time with Strachan ahead of the shock 1-0 win in Zagreb had left the Scotland players hugely impressed by the former Celtic boss' knowledge and attention to detail.

That gave the side the platform to end a run of seven competitive games without a win, including four straight defeats, by recording their finest result since France were beaten in Paris in 2007.

There had been nothing to suggest Scotland would deliver their first World Cup Group A win at the seventh attempt, with many supporters fearing a heavy defeat against a Croatian team ranked among the world's top four by Fifa that also lost 1-0 to a Cristiano Ronaldo goal against Portugal last night.

But Robert Snodgrass' early goal went unanswered as Scotland soaked up second-half pressure in Maksimir Stadium, so successfully keeper Allan McGregor had surprisingly little to do. Just as impressive was the confidence the players in dark blue showed when passing the ball out of trouble and up the pitch.

Scotland had gathered at their squad hotel last weekend, six days before the match in the Croatian capital, and double-sessions allowed Strachan more time than usual to get his message across.

"Where did that confidence come from? We've got it in us," said McArthur.

"I think working that extra week with the manager allowed us to work really hard. We came away and had double-sessions, we worked on how we wanted to play and I think that helped us enormously.

"A lot of people have been criticising Scotland because we've not been getting the results. We need to take that on the chin but in Croatia we tried to prove people wrong and showed that we are a nation that is trying to go places and we will try to build for the next campaign.

"I play my club football in England. They don't say much about our results down there, of course there is some banter over the Scotland-England thing but they don't really give an opinion.

"But what the Croatia result will do is give us a chance to build momentum and start us playing with a winning mentality.

"We believe now. You could see it in the defending at the end of the game, we believed we could win it.

"We were always going to win that match because we kept at it, we kept defending, we kept concentrating, the characters in the changing room are outstanding.

"All of us were absolutely knackered at the end of the game. To keep grinding and get that result was fantastic."

McArthur is one of three Wigan players regularly in the Scotland team – Shaun Maloney was the team's man of the match in Zagreb and although Gary Caldwell was unavailable because of injury he is another stalwart and occasional captain.

All three savoured the win in Croatia and it was the latest twist in an incredible month for the trio in which they won the FA Cup, were relegated to the Championship, and then lost Roberto Martinez to Everton.

"It has been a helluva month of ups and downs," said McArthur, who has been a regular since he joined from Hamilton Accies in 2010.

"It's just good to finish on a high. It's been like a rollercoaster at the end of the season, from doing the best thing you'll ever do in your career, winning the FA Cup, to being relegated."

There has been speculation that McArthur, Maloney and another former Accies star, James McCarthy, could all move to bigger clubs. But McArthur insisted he had no plan to leave and would commit to getting them back into the Premier League at the first attempt.

"I still expect to be at Wigan next season," he said. "As players we need to be ready for the new challenges coming to us and I'm ready for it. I don't know about other players but I've got three years left on my contract and I'm really happy, it's a brilliant club."