GORDON Strachan has conceded he may have been guilty of overthinking his team selection for Scotland's Euro 2016 qualifier with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin at the weekend.

But he has insisted the national side remains in contention for one of the two automatic qualifying spots available for the finals in France next year after picking up a precious point away from home with a hard-fought 1-1 draw.

Strachan surprised members of the Tartan Army with his starting line-up for the Group D match against Martin O'Neill's team in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening.

He handed Derby County defender Craig Forsyth his first start in a competitive international when he picked him at left back ahead of both Andy Robertson of Hull City and Steven Whittaker of Norwich City.

He also left Ikechi Anya, who was named the Scottish Football Writers' Association International Player of the Year last month, on the bench and gave Matt Ritchie just his fourth cap.

Forsyth struggled as Scotland performed poorly in the opening 45 minutes and fell behind to a Jon Walters goal. They only got back into the game after Strachan replaced winger Ritchie with Anya at half-time.

A Shaun Maloney shot which was deflected into the Republic net off John O'Shea in the first minute of the second half ensured the visitors collected a valuable point which kept them ahead of their opponents in third place in their section.

The fixture came more than a month after many of the country's sizeable contingent of English Championship players had made their last competitive appearances of the 2014/15 season for their club sides.

Strachan admitted the unusual circumstances of the outing had posed him significant difficulties.

"Maybe you can go overboard when you think about the team selection," he said. "Maybe sometimes you can put too much thought into it.

"The system we used wasn't working because we weren't passing the ball well enough. So we had to try something else to make the players feel more comfortable.

"I could sit here and say the system didn't work, but our passing didn't allow it to work and that's something we have to think about in the future and work out.

"It was amazing how it changed when Ikechi went on and took us much further up the pitch. That's something I'll have to have a wee think about myself."

With Poland beating Georgia 4-0 at home and Germany thrashing minnows Gibraltar 7-0 away from home on Saturday, Scotland fell three points adrift of the Group D leaders and two points behind the world champions into third place.

Only the top two teams in the nine sections, along with the highest-ranked third-placed team, qualify for the finals straight away. The remaining eight third-placed sides go into play-offs for the final four places.

Strachan declared himself satisfied with his side's performances in the season just ended, when they won three, drew two and lost just one of their Euro 2016 qualifiers, and is confident they can finish in the top two.

He said: "Poland got a good result on Saturday, but we are still in the mix for an automatic place, absolutely.

"We took a point from Poland away and now we've taken a point in Ireland. If you had said we would take four points from the Republic and four from Poland then you would be delighted.

"I think the performances have exceeded my expectations. Sometimes you get through in life by scraping a goal away from home somewhere or winning a match you didn't deserve to win.

"But it's not been like that for us. I think we've probably taken the right amount of points. The performance levels have been magnificent."