MANAGER WILL RETHINK CHANGES

GORDON STRACHAN admits he almost overdid the changes to his Scotland line-up against Ireland. He started Bournemouth’s Matt Ritchie and Derby left-back Craig Forsyth but left fans’ favourite Ikechi Anya on the bench. The personnel switch threatened to backfire during a dismal first half — before Anya’s arrival for Ritchie triggered a secondhalf fightback. Shaun Maloney’s deflected strike cancelled out an offside opener from Jon Walters and dealt a critical blow to Irish hopes of qualification. Insisting the Scots still have a great chance of reaching France automatically, Strachan will rethink his approach to team tinkering in the final four games. ‘It was amazing how it changed when Ikechi went on and took us much further up the pitch,’ said Strachan. ‘That’s something I’ll have a wee think about myself. But you can’t guarantee he would have played like that in the first half either. ‘I wanted Naisy (Steven Naismith) in the team because he gives you that extra thing inside the penalty box. If the ball goes in there it’s amazing how often he gets his wee blond head to it. ‘Maybe you can go overboard when you think about team selection, put too much thought into it.’ Strachan blamed the Aviva surface for a nervous, errorstrewn competitive debut for Forsyth. The Derby defender only lasted the 90 minutes because Strachan wanted to keep his subs for late in the game if needed. ‘The ball and the surface was completely different from what he’s used to,’ added Strachan. ‘They watered the pitch before kick-off and the ball was different from what we’d been practising with. ‘I think that spooked him a wee bit — if I’m trying to help him out in any way… because I think he’s better than that. Did I feel sorry for him? I think he just has that look about him. That’s the way he is. You look at him in training and ask: “Are you happy enough? Because you disguise it well”. ‘Look, a few players in that first half were having a bad time. But you say to yourself: “We have only got three substitutions to make and we might need them later in the game”. ‘When you have three or four playing below par it’s very hard to say: “Right, let’s take them all off at half time”. You can’t do that.’