Scotland v Northern Ireland: Tartan Army to march on

Gordon Strachan has a healthy record in friendly matches

Both Scotland and Northern Ireland are in fine form, but the former are far better at turning it on in friendlies...

Scotland v Northern Ireland
Wednesday, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports 1 and 5

Scotland

Gordon Strachan has rebuilt Scotland's pride in their national team by making them progressively more formidable during his two years in charge.

Excitement has also been increased by this being their third derby in a row, following a priceless 1-0 Euro 2016 qualifying victory over Republic of Ireland and a 3-1 friendly defeat to England.

The major squad news is that Bournemouth winger Matt Ritchie has been included for the first time, while the likes of Grant Hanley, Chris Martin and Ross McCormack will miss both this and the home qualifier against Gibraltar due to injuries.

Northern Ireland

It is difficult to fathom what has happened to Northern Ireland in the past seven months.

Michael O'Neill has been transformed from the brink of persona-non-grata-dom after eight winless games and four successive blanks prior to Euro 2016 qualifying to the hero who made them dream of a first tournament appearance in 30 years following three Group F triumphs in four.

The team news attracting all the attention is the impending debut of Man United defender Paddy McNair. Jonny Evans is available for his first high-profile outing since being banned for spitting at Papiss Cisse three weeks ago, though Sammy Clingan and Shane Ferguson have withdrawn injured.

Match Odds: Scotland 1.784/5, Northern Ireland 5.79/2, The Draw 3.711/4

Strachan has nailed the art of imbuing friendlies with competiveness since moving into international management. If you remove the two narrow and excusable losses to England, they have won three and drawn two of their five such fixtures under him, prevailing in Norway and Poland in that period.

Northern Ireland by contrast haven't come out on top in a non-qualifier since 2008, being beaten by Uruguay and Chile in their two over the last 12 months. Albania, Malta and Cyprus are among the nations that they have proven unable to conquer over the full near-seven years of anti-winning.

Scotland Clean Sheet

These neighbours' contrasting friendly form doesn't stop at the fact that one always wins and one never does, it extends to Scotland being masters of clean-sheet accumulation while Northern Ireland specialise in racking up zeroes.

Strachan's side have shut out four of their five friendly opponents not named England since his appointment, whereas Northern Ireland haven't scored in any of their previous five that had nothing of substance at stake. In total, they have failed to fire in 12 of their most recent 14 friendlies.

Scotland have kept clean sheets in all of their last three meetings with Northern Ireland.

Best Bet: Back Scotland to win @ 1.784/5
Other Recommended Bet: Back Scotland to keep a clean sheet @ 2.111/10