GORDON STRACHAN will be another year older by the time Scotland discover who their next competitive opponents will be.

 

The national team boss celebrates his 57th birthday at the start of February.

A fortnight later, at the Palais des Congres Acropolis in Nice, the draw for Euro 2016 qualification will take place.

It is expected there will be nine groups, one of five teams, the remainder of six.

From each, the top two countries will progress straight to the finals in France, along with the team finishing as the best third-placed side.

The remaining eight countries finishing in third will go into a play-off and the four winners will join the hosts at the Gallic jamboree.

With the finals being expanded to 24 countries, it would appear to offer the best possible chance for Scotland to get to their first finals since, ironically, France 1998.

But, despite a very strong finish to the World Cup qualification campaign, culminating in that impressive win over Croatia this week, it would be folly (and not the Bergere kind) to assume this is going to be an easy journey back to a major event.

The stark fact is that, while 24 countries will be in the finals, Scotland's 28-place rise to 35th in the world rankings today won't make the qualification route to France in three years' time any easier.

The co-efficient is based on how countries performed in the qualification and finals for the 2010 World Cup, the 2012 European Championship, and finally the 2014 World Cup.

So, the past could yet again come back to haunt Scotland when Strachan sits down to watch the draw from Nice as Scotland will again be in Pot 4, as we were for the campaign just ended.

That means Scott Brown and Co will have to prepare to shoot down three teams ranked higher than them, and fend off one or two from the pair of pots below. While the Tartan Army is buoyed by the turnaround in fortunes which have been brought about by Strachan's arrival, they can't be blinded to the fact Scotland finished World Cup qualification Group A precisely where our ranking said we should be, in fourth spot.

A repeat of that in Euro 2016 would leave us missing out on yet another finals, so the steady improvement we have witnessed in the nine months Strachan has been in charge has to continue, if not step up a gear.

The manager accepts we can't afford to be playing catch-up from the start, as we did for the last campaign following two home draws against Serbia and Macedonia.

Neither can we afford to take zero points from any country ranked below us, as we did against Wales.

Defeating the No.1 seed in the group, Croatia, not once but twice is to be celebrated, but they are hollow victories when put against the context of failing to put us in a position to challenge for anything other than avoiding bottom spot.

Strachan may be glad to see the end of Scotland's World Cup campaign which he inherited when it was already doomed, but he now faces 11 months of non-competitive action during which he has to ensure his players are ready to hit the ground running when Euro 2016 kicks off.

He could be forgiven for already counting down the days until the qualification draw is made.

But he insists his gaze stretches no further than his next opportunity to bring his squad together, which will be for the friendly against the United States on November 15. Scotland today confirmed another match for the following Tuesday in Norway.

That's all that is occupying Strachan's mind for now, and he is divorcing himself from the hype which is sure to build up regarding the draw for the Euros.

"I am not looking for that yet, trust me on that," he said. "I am honestly looking forward to the next set of games, to see what else we can bring through."

It will be what rather than who because, while the search for fresh faces eligible to come into contention for inclusion in his squad will continue, the player identified last week as a possible has proved to be outwith the reach of Scotland. The mystery man was invited to delve into his background to see if there was any link which would satisfy the eligibility criteria, but he has hit a brick wall.

So, it is likely to be the usual suspects who regroup next month, while Strachan hopes that others, including Jordan Rhodes, have recovered from injuries which ruled them out this time around.

The feelgood factor has been given another boost by the win and performance against the troubled Croats, who are in disarray as they await Monday's play-off draw.

While his counterpart, Igor Stimac, was sacked following the defeat to Scotland, Strachan's reputation as a manager who could make the most of the limited resources available to him was further enhanced.

However, he knows it is very much still a work in progress, though the progress being shown does give him belief things are now moving in the right direction.

The past nine months have been as much a learning curve for Strachan as they have been for his players, and he reflected: "We know who can do what now.

"It is always good when you set out things in training, and, if they bring results in the matches, the players back it. The longer you go without that transferring from training pitch to match situation, the harder it is for them to believe.

"So, if we can get results and performances, then you have done really well. I hope that we all enjoyed this week, but we've still got a long way to go. We don't have world-class players, but we have players who, as a group, can win games."