Gordon Strachan has revealed that Scotland assistant Mark McGhee’s position with the national team will be unaffected by his sacking from Motherwell, and in fact, he is taking on new responsibilities - as designated driver.

McGhee left the Fir Park club two weeks ago after a poor run of results, but Strachan says that his number two has got over that disappointment and is ready to help his country once again.

“Mark and myself drove up to see Newcastle against Fulham on Saturday,” Strachan said.

“He is driving the car! It is fine. It is good. You can sit there and talk football as you drive up. We drove from the Midlands. That gave us five hours to talk football.

“Mark’s situation won’t change. It actually works out better for me because it means he sees more games. There were time before where I thought: ‘I’d better not give him a call. He is better off concentrating on that’.

“Once it settles down, he is back, he’s bouncy, he is ready to go again.”

The four-month hiatus in action since the defeat to England at Wembley has also reinvigorated Strachan, and he hopes that the inclusion of the uncapped trio of Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Fraser and Tom Cairney can have a similar effect on his squad.

But he feels that the Scots aren’t far away from getting it right on the field, believing his side to have been unlucky in the campaign so far.

He said: “I looked back at the England game and as I said during the game itself to Mark: 'this is not fair on these guys.'

"We played really well and they had three headers on target that went in. No other shots. Craig [Gordon] didn't have a save to make. Things went right for them. You look through the team and think: 'he did well, he did well, and so did he.'

"You can screw yourself up but if you look at it, two minutes changed the outcome of the game. You have to put that behind you and look forward and get on with it. And we've not left the squad the same.

“New people have come to the fore, who were not leaving footprints before the England game but they are leaving footprints. Because of that I would have no qualms about putting them in.

“If we can get the players into the positions against Slovakia and England and finish off these moves then the world is a different place.”