Smith fears 'quagmire' conditions

Scotland received a nasty surprise last night when they arrived in Lithuania for their Euro 2008 Group B qualifier. The pitch they will be playing on at the St Darius and St Gireno Stadium tonight appeared to be partly a quagmire and partly bare earth.

Heavy rain had also caused flooding in the room where Walter Smith conducted his press conference and the Scotland manager admitted: "It's a worry. It was not in great condition the last time Scotland were here but this is poor and we have to keep our fingers crossed that we can avoid injuries on the night."

The treacherous underfoot conditions may well offset the good fortune Smith has enjoyed in being able to field a virtually full-strength team despite injuries elsewhere in the squad.

Smith has had to cope with an absentee roster including such experienced players as Barry Ferguson, Jackie McNamara and Andy Webster. He has also lost Garry O'Connor, Lee McCulloch, Graham Murty and Stephen McManus. "On Monday we were down to 19 players, and that included three goalkeepers, which is why we had to call up Scott Brown from Hibs," Smith said.

Yet he was able to name something close to his ideal line-up for Saturday's 6-0 thrashing of the Faroe Islands and he will be able to do so again this evening. "Barry Ferguson would have been in the side and maybe Andy Webster as well, but it would be true to say that the call-offs have not disrupted our game plan," Smith said.

"Without Barry and Andy, I had a team in mind for Saturday and that was the team that played. Likewise, I had a side in mind for the Lithuania game and we should be able to go with that — it's certainly an unusual situation for a Scotland manager."

Smith endlessly emphasises consistency of performance and there has been a discernible graph of improvement since he took over from Berti Vogts in January 2005. The manager believes that progress has been made on all fronts but he insisted the Scots would have to advance their game against Lithuania. "We thought it would be difficult before they drew with Italy," he said. "I have watched a video of that game and Lithuania played well, but away games allow you to do that. An aspect of our play that we hope will continue is the ability to get goals away from home."

Smith is likely to deploy a 4-1-4-1 formation with Kenny Miller as the sole attacker and Kris Boyd dropping to the bench to fit Gary Caldwell, of Celtic, into an insurance role in front of the defence. David Weir again captains the side on the occasion of his 50th cap.

Team details

Lithuania: Karcemarskas; Stankevicius, Dziaukastas, Skerla, Preiksaitis; Mikoliunas, Zvigzdauskas, Savenas, Danielivicius; Cesnauskis, Poskus.
Scotland: Gordon (Hearts); Dailly (West Ham), Pressley (Hearts), Weir (Everton), Naysmith (Everton); Caldwell (Celtic); Fletcher (Manchester United), Hartley (Hearts), Quashie (West Bromwich), McFadden (Everton); Miller (Celtic).

Taken from telegraph.co.uk