PAUL CADDIS grew up at Celtic absolutely terrified of Gordon Strachan - but is now grateful he was given such a hard time as a kid.

It was Strachan who gave the-then 19-year-old his debut at Kilmarnock and thought him good enough to start against Barcelona in a last 16 Champions League match, when he marked Ronaldinho of all people.

Fast forward eight years and the right-back played his first few minutes as a Scotland player against the Czech Republic in Prague and is expected to feature in the game with Denmark at Hampden.

Caddis, now at Birmingham City, has a lot to thank Strachan for, but he didn't always believe his manager was a fan.

He said: "When I was a young lad at Celtic I was terrified of him. I am not going to lie, Gordon and Gary Pendry were scary.

"The manager was always quite tough on me and now I look back and can see he did it for a reason. I would rather he had done that than not know who I was.

"He wouldn't have thrown anyone in, he trusted me and has given me a cap so I owe a lot to him. Hopefully it's not the last one.

"At Celtic, it always seemed to be me. I wasn't picked on, it wasn't as if he was constantly hammering me, it was more 'do this, do this, do this.'

"As a young lad training with the first team you are a bit intimidated and now, when any manager has a go at me, I'll always be ready for it because no-one gets as angry as Strachan - but I obviously owe a lot to him."

Caddis is a Celtic fan and was highly thought of at the club. They didn't want him to leave and many fans would have been disappointed this one was allowed to leave.

However, the decision belonged to Caddis who did not want to be merely a fringe player. He wanted to be a football who actually played football.

That is why the soon to be 28-year-old moved to Swindon Town, where he spent some interesting times with Paolo Di Canio as his manager, and he is now in his fourth season at Birmingham where he is an automatic pick.

Caddis said: "I was in and out the Celtic team under Tony Mowbray and then Neil Lennon came in.

"I spoke to him and he was quite keen for me to stay but it got to the stage where - and I was a Celtic fan and loved being at the club - I had to start being a footballer.

"I wanted to play football, I ended up going to Swindon and enjoyed a couple of years down there. I have never really looked back since.

"Plenty of folk would have said I'll stay at Celtic as a fan, it's a big club and you are well looked after, but I didn't want to be one of those guys who is 24 year old and has played 15 or 20 games."

Caddis has carved out a good career for himself. The Championship in England is a tough league and yet he has played 150 games in the division.

And now he has a late crack at being a Scotland player, a challenge the Ayrshire man will relish.

Caddis said: "I'll be 28 next month so I never thought it would come. I spoke to Gordon Greer who told me he got his first cap at 32 so I think it's important just to go and play games.

"I decided to do that at a young age, to go and play and build a bit of experience up.

"I always remember Strachan sending me out on loan to Dundee United, and this always stuck with me, he said I had to to go and get a personality in football.

"I don't think he meant as a man but as a footballer, to go and be somebody as a footballer, and I did that under Craig Levein at Unites.

"I've never really looked back.

"I was called up for Serbia away under the manager and to come on the other night, albeit for only four minutes for Scotland, well no-one can take that away from me."

Birmingham are on the cusp of the Premier League play-off places and Caddis loves the competitiveness of the environment he plays in.

He said: Harry Redknapp said a couple of years ago that it's the only league in the world where there's between 12 and 15 teams at the start of the season who really think they can go up.

"But there's only six places, top two then four in the play-off, and there's 15 teams fighting for them every year. It's relentless but I enjoy playing football and managed to be fairly successful.

"You see teams are relegated into this league and they will huff and puff at the number of games. I prefer it because it's less training, you are playing different stadia and showing the world what you can do.

"It is probably our Scottish mentality. We just love working hard."