Steve Clarke's Scotland success means traditional Tbilisi terror trip is just Tartan Army tick box job - Keith Jackson

If truth be told, it all feels a bit surreal and very un-Scottish.

A 3000-mile road trip to Tbilisi for a match which no longer matters, when it ought to be a trip towards absolute terror. Under normal circumstances Scotland’s players would arrive in the Georgian capital this morning, with a knot in the pit of their stomachs along with the clawing fear it could still go horribly wrong. Because it almost always does.

But Steve Clarke has changed all of that, over the course of his four-and-a-half years at the helm. Where once qualification for the biggest events seemed like a long lost distant memory, now Clarke is doing it with two games still to spare. So, yes, it’s no wonder the Tartan Army will make the long journey over the next 24 hours, wondering what they are supposed to do with themselves other than to relax, soak up the local brew and enjoy the victory lap.

Clarke is to thank for that along with the emergence of a core group of players who have excelled in a manner that seemed impossible to imagine when Gordon Strachan was reduced to dishing out caps to anyone with a bloodline getting a game in the second tier of English football. That Strachan was still able to mould his side into a capable, competent international outfit spoke volumes for his own managerial skills.

He may be cursing his luck a little bit even now that he couldn’t survive for long enough in the job to benefit from the golden generation which was coming into view over the horizon. It was Strachan who saw the potential in the likes of Andy Robertson and John McGinn and promoted the pair into his full squad when they were still cutting their teeth with the under 21s.

So it seems fair to conclude he always suspected there might be better days to