No pain, no gain

So after the euphoria on Saturday, Alex McLeish now discovers he has rather more empty seats on the plane to Tblisi than first thought. As of writing, Scotland will miss the following players who would almost certainly have been in the matchday 18:
1) Allan McGregor - sub keeper missed the Ukraine game as well due to a shoulder strain
2) Alan Hutton - magnificent on Saturday at right back, but has a calf injury
3) Gary Caldwell - knee injury ruled the Celtic centre-back out of this round of internationals
4) Paul Hartley - hamstring pull deprives us of arguably our best holding midfielder
5) Lee McCulloch - suspended after booking on Saturday; did his ankle during the second half anyway
6) Scott Brown - hamstring pull on Saturday
7) Garry O'Connor - stupid injury-time booking brings up a suspension

Great. It's not as if an away game in Georgia was going to be easy even with a first choice team. Certainly at least three changes will be needed to the side that beat Ukraine, in the absence of McCulloch, Brown and Hutton. Alexander is the obvious replacement right-back - Mr. Reliable seems to excel in our away games. Midfield is just a teensy bit more problematic. Thank goodness Fletcher is back - sounds like he'll play even if he only has one leg, which is a relief considering Stephen Pearson's tepid performance at Hampden. Sheer lack of options should mean another opportunity for him - perhaps on the left of midfield this time, as our only other options are the lightweight Shaun Maloney and the rather out of his depth Barry Robson.

Actually, that's not entirely true. Christian Dailly's 20 minute shift harassing Andriy Voronin might have done enough to earn him a place at the base of midfield. Could this herald a return to 4-5-1 away from home, with Fadders on the left flank? Maybe. In that case, Pearson could make way for Fletcher in centre mid, and a more attacking minded player on the right (heaven forbid, that probably means Gary Teale). Poor Kenny Miller, who is probably doomed to run like hell for 90 minutes feeding on scraps yet again. So my prediction for the Scotland team: Gordon, Alexander, Weir, McManus, Naysmith, Teale, Fletcher, Dailly, Ferguson, McFadden, Miller.

McLeish is overdue a selection blunder, I think. Please, please, please, let it not be Wednesday night.

L.