No surface tension for Strachan in Lithuania
GORDON STRACHAN believes Lithuania’s plastic pitch will hold no fears for his players — after he sourced one in Scotland that is a close match to it. Strachan’s men face the Group F also-rans a week on Friday in Vilnius, requiring to take heed of the fact that the surface at the LFF Stadium is artificial. As Sportsmail revealed last month, Strachan and his assistant Mark McGhee have considered various options to train on before flying out, with the Parklea complex in Port Glasgow, the facility used by Morton, believed to be their preferred choice. Strachan’s 27-man squad will assemble on Sunday as they begin preparations for the make-or-break trip to the Baltics, which precedes a home match against Malta three days later. And the Scotland boss insists any element of surprise the surface in Vilnius may have held will be negated due to the homework he and his backroom staff have done. Asked if the pitch — on which FK Trakai recently eliminated St Johnstone from the Europa League qualifiers — worried him, Strachan said: ‘It doesn’t. It’s just
something that has to be dealt with. ‘A lot of the guys in the squad have played on artificial surfaces. Speaking to Callum (Davidson, St Johnstone assistant), he said it was more like Kilmarnock’s playing surface than any others. ‘So we looked around and we’ve found a place that we think is similar. Then you’ve got to decide how long you want to train on it. ‘The lads who play in the Premier League down in England, or the Championship, don’t really train on that at all. So we need to speak to the sports people. ‘But the players shouldn’t get too spooked at all because the actual surfaces are not that bad now. ‘It’s nowhere near like the days when it was Queens Park Rangers and Luton Town when it was like cement you were playing on. ‘It was crazy — nobody could play on that. ‘We’ve got a place. It’s not Kilmarnock, we just thought the travelling there and back would be too much.’ Strachan’s squad for the vital double-header offers a return to the international fold for Hibernian defender Steven Whittaker and the inclusion of Millwall keeper Jordan Archer to cover for the injured David Marshall. West Brom midfielder James Morrison, who was injured in the 2-2 draw with England, misses out on this occasion.