GORDON STRACHAN hopes the weight of expectation won't sit heavily on his players' shoulders as they prepare to take on Gibraltar on Sunday.

Victory by a few goals to spare will be the least expected by the Hampden crowd if Scotland is to remain on course to qualify for Euro 2016. Gibraltar, competing in their first qualifying campaign after being accepted as a full UEFA member in 2013, have lost each of their matches heavily to date, although Strachan did warn that world champions Germany only took four off the side from the tiny British territory when they met in Nuremberg in November.

Strachan reserved comment on whether minnows like Gibraltar should be allowed to participate in elite competition but insisted his players would not be taking their assignment lightly.

"The players have not got to where they are without treating games properly," he said. "You just had to watch their intensity in training on Tuesday when they were playing amongst themselves to see their hard work. You don't get to where they are by talking people for granted. You can rest assured that won't happen.

"Gibraltar are a new nation and it's not for me to decide whether they should be involved. But the world champions only beat them 4-0. I can't tell our fans how to behave, they've been fantastic. But I'd imagine we'll get about three minutes before they get anxious.

"That's just the way we are, everybody is like that. There is not a problem, we all come along to games and get anxious. But as long as the players don't get anxious, that's the main thing.

"But as I say, when it was Germany it was only four goals. I talk about playing against San Marino in my day and being as nervous as I've ever been in all my life talking a penalty - because I was up against a bus driver. Who wants to be remembered for missing a penalty against a bus driver? But I have enough confidence in everybody who is here that it'll never get to that position."

Strachan will likely look to Steven Fletcher to once more lead the line, either as a lone striker or in tandem with another forward given how much possession Scotland can expect to enjoy on Sunday.

Fletcher endured another barren night in front of goal in Wednesday's 1-0 friendly win over Northern Ireland. It is now six years since the Sunderland striker's solitary Scotland goal - he did, in mitigation, not play for two years following a fall-out with former manager Craig Levein - but Strachan believes there was enough to admire in Fletcher's play to see him as pivotal whether he is scoring or not.

"There was lovely movement from him and link-up play [against Northern Ireland]," he added. "All his game needs is a goal. But I don't think it's affecting his touch or his willingness to work, you see him sliding into tackles and making blocks. So if you don't have your goalscoring boots on then you dig in and do something else for the team, so I'm happy with that.

"He is terrific to watch. I think he is elegant, I think he's clever, he brings people into play. You can trust him when the ball goes up beside him so we can then get up beside him. But I would like to see more people round about him. In the first half against Northern Ireland I didn't think we had enough people in the box. If you move people in the box then defenders will move which will allow strikers like Steven or Jordan Rhodes a bit of space. We played too much around the edge of the box so I would like to see more bodies in the box. In saying that we don't have a [Lukas] Podolski or a [Thomas] Mueller who comes in off the line."