Craig Gordon believes that the spirit of the Celtic players has helped Scotland to help mould a club mentality as the country prepares for another push to land a playoff ticket to Russia.

Scotland engineered a dramatic last gasp goal against Slovakia that means there is all to play for tomorrow evening in Slovenia and Gordon believes that the winning mentality of the Parkhead group has helped Gordon Strachan’s side.

This time a year ago the campaign looked to be over before it had truly begun but recent results – Scotland are unbeaten in their last five games – has meant that there remains a flickering possibility of making it to a major tournament for the first time since 1998.

“There were a few of us from Celtic in the starting line-up even without Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong. we are still fairly well represented,” said Gordon. “It does help us because we obviously know one another’s game and we have brought the same mentality from Celtic into the international camp.

“In saying that, I feel as though the manager has done well to foster a club mentality around the national team and there is a spirit and togetherness about us that has helped over the last few months when we knew we really had to go out and try to get results.

“We missed Scott [Brown] and Stuart [Armstrong] on Thursday night but these are guys who have done their bit. They are influential players and they would be missed by any team but the lads who came in have done really well. “We still created chances and it was a solid team performance and regardless of how many Celtic players are in there, you know what you are going to get with this group.”

Gordon himself claimed his 50th Scottish cap with his appearance in the victory over Slovakia, although he admitted there was a split second when he heard the shrill sound of referee Milorad Mazik’s whistle when he feared that his night could have ended in disaster. “I knew I hadn’t touched Robert Mak but when I heard the whistle I just hoped the referee hadn’t been conned by it. The ref was in a good position and made the right call and I don’t think I was anywhere near him..”

Gordon is the first Scotland keeper since 1999 to enjoy three successive clean sheets and as Scotland look to keep the momentum going ahead of tomorrow’s 5pm kick-off, a game that will determine whether or not the journey continues or stops abruptly.

“That is 13 points from 15 and three clean sheets in succession for the first time since 1999,” said the Scotland and celtic goalkeeper. “If we aren’t conceding then we are giving ourselves a chance so it has been a good run.

“We have got the foundations right and the defence can take a lot of confidence from those kind of stats.

“You have to say that getting to a major international tournament would be the pinnacle of anyone’s career. I wanted to play Champions League football and having done that this is the next thing I would love to achieve - to represent my country at a World Cup.

“It would be incredible but I don’t think that we can afford to get too carried away with ourselves just yet. We still have a pretty big job to do tomorrow night and it is most certainly not one that we will underestimate.

“We’ll got here and try and win the game. We don’t want to reliant on anyone else slipping up. We want to go there with noting on our mind except winning the game.

“I think we can play better than we did against Slovakia. We can pass the ball better and although we made a lot of chances we didn’t play as well as we have but the important thing was that we kept the job going. “

And while there was an element of luck to the winner which kept Scotland in it on Thursday night. Gordon believes that Scotland deserve credit for maintaining their composure as the minutes ticked by.

There was a strong feeling that time would run out on Strachan’s side as they hit the woodwork and were denied by an outstanding display from Slovakian goalkeeper Martin Dubravka but the tenacity shown by them at Hampden has keep up this concluding game tomorrow.

“The team has changed a lot since the initial games of the group,” said Gordon. “But I think we have stuck to our task all the way through. We never felt as though it was gone and we always had faith that we could keep ourselves in it.

“We have managed to get to this point and now it is about going out and doing ourselves justice with a strong display that hopefully gets us the rewards we want.”