Mark McGhee buoyed by Scotland strikers' scoring form

Scotland assistant coach Mark McGhee is more encouraged by the fact that his strikers are scoring than fearful of Robert Lewandowski's stunning form.

Poland striker Lewandowski continued his exceptional goalscoring spree on Sunday with a double in Bayern Munich's 5-1 win over his former club Borussia Dortmund.

That made it 12 goals in four games for the 27-year-old, whose team face Scotland at Hampden Park on Thursday.

Lewandowski is also the top goalscorer in the European Championship qualifiers with 10 goals.

But the Scotland squad met up with strikers feeling good about themselves too after all four in Gordon Strachan's pool netted at the weekend.

Sunderland forward Steven Fletcher scored his second of the season against West Ham; Jordan Rhodes hit a double against former club Ipswich to make it seven from five games for Blackburn; Chris Martin struck for Derby; and Leigh Griffiths headed his 10th goal of the season for Celtic.

When quizzed on whether Scotland had special plans to deal with Lewandowski, McGhee said: "We feel we have to match them in every area and obviously he's their guy they hope will get goals for him so we have to pay him attention.

"I have total respect for him, he's a fantastic player, but we have players in form as well. We have players who scored at the weekend as well.

"When I watched the games coming in on Saturday and I see Martin and Fletcher scoring goals, and Griffiths yesterday, then that's encouraging because that's going to bring them here full of confidence.

"If you score once, you tend to think you will score again. That's the important thing for us, that we have players who are in scoring form.''

Fletcher has started seven of the eight qualifiers so far - Steven Naismith was the lone striker in Germany - but has only netted against Gibraltar.

But McGhee said: "Steven Fletcher brings a lot to the team other than goals and I think the fact that he played for Sunderland at the weekend, not having scored many goals this season, reflects that. And it's the same for us.

"We hope Steven can get goals if he plays but there are other aspects of his play that are valuable to the team.''

Griffiths has taken his domestic form into Europe, hitting a double against Malmo and netting against Fenerbahce.

"We've been hugely encouraged by Leigh Griffiths all season,'' McGhee said.

"We've seen a big improvement. The work Celtic are doing with him, having spoken to Leigh and the likes of Chris McCart, clearly they are doing really good work with him.

"That, combined with the fact he's in scoring form, definitely makes him a realistic candidate to start, but that will ultimately be the manager's decision.''

Griffiths admitted he was desperate to score at Hamilton on Sunday after seeing his international team-mates find the net on Saturday, but McGhee revealed team play was more important than a determination to score as Scotland bid to keep their play-off hopes alive. They need at least a draw on Thursday but their fate is out of their hands.

"We have said it about Steven Fletcher, we have said it about Chris Martin, Gordon has a very, very clear picture about what's required from every position on the pitch in terms of their contribution towards the way the team wants to play,'' he said.

"That is the first thing we look at and he looks at. So the fact that Leigh is in such form and is determined to score, is a bonus. But first and foremost, can Leigh do the job that is required in that position on the day? That will be the criteria that will be used to select the team.''

It appears unlikely that both Fletcher and Griffiths will start.

"We'd need to debate that for two hours before we could come to a conclusion,'' McGhee said.

"So far we haven't done that.

"What you have to respect is that there are a lot of people in the team who have done brilliantly in that area of the pitch. In order for that to happen, someone has got to give.

"It's not something that I would say couldn't work, that those two couldn't play together. Of course they could. But there are other things for the manager to take into account before he would make that decision.

"We have come to be convinced that the system we have is the best for the players we have. We can put a slightly different emphasis on certain aspects of our play and I certainly expect that to be the case.''

Norwich midfielder Graham Dorrans was earlier called up following the withdrawal of Kevin McDonald, who has remained with Wolves because of a back injury.

McGhee admitted Celtic's Charlie Mulgrew had been "pretty much'' ruled out but there were no other fitness concerns.