Strachan Focused On Scotland

Photo by Jeff Holmes Gordon Strachan will pay no heed to Republic of Ireland's on and off-field problems ahead of Scotland's 2016 European Championship qualifier at Celtic Park on Friday night. The Irish arrived in Glasgow on Thursday afternoon with the spotlight on assistant manager Roy Keane following an incident at a hotel in north Dublin the previous day. Republic manager Martin O'Neill expressed his "full support" for the former Manchester United midfielder before later describing it as a "distraction, that's all it was'', at the pre-match press conference at Parkhead. At his press conference at Mar Hall, Scotland's base on the outskirts of Glasgow, earlier in the day, Strachan was asked in a roundabout way about the Keane incident. He responded in a light-hearted fashion by referencing his own assistant, Mark McGhee. "I have to deal with McGhee every day and when you get beat by him at Scrabble it is a nightmare," said the former Scotland midfielder, whose side have four points from three games, three behind the Republic. "So I have my own problems as well. "Two hours of scrabble last night and I got beat. I wasn't a happy man." O'Neill also had to contend with the withdrawal of midfield duo James McCarthy and Glenn Whelan as the Irish look to stretch their three-point lead over the Scots in Group D. Scotland-born McCarthy was unable to recover from a hamstring strain sustained during Everton's 1-1 draw with Sunderland last weekend. The match comes too early for Stoke City's Whelan, who continues to recover from a fractured leg sustained in Republic of Ireland's 1-1 draw in Germany last month. Strachan, however, insists he is paying little attention to Irish injury woes. He said. "They have a terrific squad. They have a good group of players so I haven't looked at it. "If you look at their squad, you go, 'he's a good player, he's a good player' so we know there are going to be good players playing. The pitch will be full of good players. "And the last time we practised for three days to play against three centre backs for Georgia and within a minute we realised we were playing against a back four. "So you really can't plan too much in advance. You see what is on the pitch and deal with that."