Sheffield Wednesday: Gordon Strachan's praise for '˜terrific' Barry Bannan

Bannan, who admitted before Saturday night’s 1-1 draw with Lithuania that he had, in the past, been frustrated by his ti e on the fringes of the Scotland set-up, impressed in what was a poor display collectively by the Scots at Hampden.

However, despite the poor result and performance from the Scots, Bannan was one of the players who was hailed by the manager, and it would be a surprise if he didn’t keep his spot, not least with Darren Fletcher having gone off at half time.

“We’ll shake it up a wee bit (for the game in Slovakia), that’s for sure, but there were some good performances, some brave performances,” said Strachan.

“I thought Chris Martin was outstanding up front, bringing people into the game, Barry Bannan was terrific.

“There was a lot of good stuff from individual players. Some would probably want to play a bit better, that’s for sure, but the effort and character was good.”

Owls forward Steven Fletcher didn’t feature but may come into the manager’s plans now, though there is a clamour north of the border for Leigh Griffiths to start.