Craig Levein backs Allan McGregor to shut out redundancy threat

CRAIG Levein has stressed that he has every confidence in goalkeper Allan McGregor’s ability to shut out the developing events at Ibrox as well as the threat from Slovenia on what could be another day of pain at Rangers.

The Scotland manager acknowledged that there will be “a lot of anxiety” today as administrators prepare to make major decisions about the staffing levels at Rangers, more than a fortnight after the club entered administration.

McGregor will spend the hours until tonight’s kick-off in Koper, where Scotland take on Slovenia in a friendly match, waiting to hear from Ibrox about possible player redundancies. He will have company in the shape of Jim Stewart, his goalkeeper coach at both Rangers and Scotland.

“Allan will be waiting for word from Ibrox tomorrow and so will Jim Stewart,” noted Levein yesterday. “There’s a lot of anxiety because people are waiting to find out what their situation is.

“But they’ll be focused on doing their jobs here. In fact, being over here might be better for them in some ways than sitting at home waiting for the news.

“Allan is a strong boy and he’ll be focussed on playing for Scotland.

“I have a huge degree of sympathy for ‘Coisty [Ally McCoist],” added Levein, when pressed further about the situation at Rangers. “My feelings are more with the players, staff and supporters than anything else. It’s a really sad situation for everybody.

“But I have no fears about Allan. He has had various issues to contend with in the past but he has always remained completely focussed on his football. He’s an important player in the Rangers dressing-room, one of the senior figures who people look up to, and he’ll have thoughts about what is going on back at Ibrox. But he’s the type of character who, when it comes to playing football, is completely focussed on that.

“We’ve all seen that in him before. I haven’t broached it with him but, let’s put it this way, I haven’t thought for a second about not starting him. That should tell you something. He’ll play no matter what.”

Levein was as good as his word when tonight’s starting line-up was revealed at just before 8pm yesterday, with McGregor named in goal. Celtic’s Charlie Mulgrew makes his debut at left-back while Russell Martin, of Norwich City, makes what is only his second international appearance on the other side of the defence.

Despite stating late last year that he might experiment with a two-player attack, Levein looks to have stuck with his usual 4-1-4-1 formation, with Craig Mackail-Smith playing the lone striker role. Jamie Mackie, the Queens Park Rangers player, has been named in midfield alongside James Forrest and James Morrison. James McArthur, who was only called up on Monday as a replacement for Scott Brown, comes straight into the starting line-up, while Charlie Adam will likely feature as the deep-lying midfielder despite his exertions for Liverpool against Cardiff City at Wembley on Sunday, in the final of the Carling Cup.

Gary Caldwell, who partners Christophe Berra in the centre of defence, will skipper the team, in the absence of Darren Fletcher. Kenny Miller, the usual stand-in skipper, has been named among the substitutes after also featuring on Sunday at Wembley, where he missed a glorious late chance to win the cup for Cardiff and then hit a post in the penalty shoot-out.

“Kenny will come on at some point,” said Levein. “He is not starting because of not just the physical demands, but also the mental demands of the game on Sunday. The last thing I want to do is send him back to Cardiff with an injury.”

Meanwhile, Levein has welcomed the proposed change to the international fixture calendar which could see individual friendly fixtures such as tonight’s wiped out in favour of double-header appointments. “I don’t have a lot of time to do anything with the players so I’d rather lose one of these friendly dates and pick up a double- header where I’ve got 10 days with them,” he said.

Scotland v Slovenia at Bonifika Stadium tonight, kick-off 1945 GMT

Allan McGregor (Rangers)

Russell Martin (Norwich)

Gary Caldwell (Wigan)

Christophe Berra (Wolves)

Charlie Mulgrew (Celtic)

Charlie Adam (Liverpool)

James Forrest (Celtic)

James McArthur (Wigan)

James Morrison (WBA)

Jamie Mackie (QPR)

Craig Mackail Smith (Brighton)