STUART McCALL was responsible for the single, most important moment in Scotland's European Championship qualifying campaign so far.

 

Gordon Strachan, on the basis of all available evidence, is already beginning to look at it as something of a parting gift from the man now entrusted with pulling Rangers' season out of the fire.

McCall was the architect of the set-piece that saw Shaun Maloney play a short-corner with Ikechi Anya and then move onto a backheel from Scott Brown before curling a magnificent right-footed effort past David Forde and into the far corner to secure a crucial 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland last November.

He will, of course, have no input into the tactics for this week's visits of Northern Ireland and Gibraltar thanks to submerging himself in the altogether more complex business of trying to knock his former club into some kind of order. It also appears that those within the national camp are already planning for a future without him after taking full advantage of his services over the past couple of years.

Mark McGhee, Strachan's assistant, believes McCall will prove to the new board at Ibrox that he is the only man to lead their club back to health.

Indeed, he was stunned to hear that he had only been handed the reins on a short-term basis until the summer while work continues behind the scenes on the longer-term rebuilding job required at the League One champions.

However, an impressive 2-0 win over Hibernian at Easter Road has provided McCall with some kind of platform from which to show he deserves more than just a two-month gig from Dave King and his cohorts and McGhee is convinced he will deliver.

"I didn't realise that was what they had done at first," he said. "However, I think the people at the club themselves are new to it in some ways and maybe didn't want to make big decisions.

"I suspect that they will find they have a fantastic character in Stuart and will make him the permanent manager.

"I watched the game at Easter Road and I think I saw that personality transferred to the team.

"Jim Stewart (Scotland goalkeeping coach) is obviously part of things at Rangers as well and has been speaking about how Stuart is working.

"He is such an effervescent character that it can only be a positive.

"We all hope - and I suspect - that he will become the permanent manager of Rangers and that he won't be coming back.

"At that point, we will have to sit down and decide on someone else to fill his boots."

The decision to recruit McCall, then manager of Motherwell, in January 2013 was not taken lightly. He will clearly be missed should he remain at Rangers beyond the end of the current campaign.

"We thought hard about who we could ask and came up with Stuart's name," recalled McGhee.

"We then had meetings with Stuart privately and really liked him. We spoke to other people about him, including those I knew at Motherwell, and decided Stuart was the right person.

"He was brought in to do a job, not to make up the scrabble school we have here.

"He did an important job and it was one of his set-piece ideas that brought that goal against the Republic of Ireland.

"He brings a lot more, though. He is good around the place and with the players. He took parts of sessions, which allowed Gordon and I to stand aside, look at things and make decisions on what we were seeing."

McGhee reports that McCall's absence is also set to bring considerable changes to the way he has chosen to work with the national team on matchdays of late.

"I've started going to the stand in the first half and bringing down any information from things I've seen," he said.

"I actually took photographs on my phone of a couple of set-plays in the win over Georgia that helped the discussion when the centre-backs were saying something wasn't right in those situations.

"We have now progressed that to having the video analyst beside me to get quick access to stuff at half-time, but, with Stuart missing, I can't do that.

"We do require another body to allow things like that, so we will have to replace him at some point."

Maloney has also changed his place of employment since that win over the Republic of Ireland at Celtic Park. He left Wigan Athletic for Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer in January and sought assurances from the Scotland management team before making that move that it would not have an adverse impact on his international career.

"I think Gordon encouraged him to make the move," said McGhee. "He felt, at this stage of his career, that it would do him the world of good and us.

"Shaun has been fantastic for us. He got the goal in the game against the Republic and I expect him to get more goals and be an important part of the campaign. If we have the luck to qualify, I expect him to be an important part of that too."

While Maloney is a seasoned campaigner with 37 caps, Matt Ritchie of Bournemouth has been brought into the squad for the first time. McGhee insists, however, that this is much more than just an educational jolly for the Portsmouth-born winger.

"One of the things that attracted Gordon and me to him is that he plays in a team that plays the way we play," said McGhee. "If we can play as well as them, we will be doing well.

"They play some of the best football I have seen in the Championship for years.

"The way we play will be no mystery to Matt. He can be dropped into a position and know exactly what is required of him. I see no reason why, if Gordon decides he can benefit us, he cannot go straight in."