Our captain will wear the armband of Northern Ireland as he collects his 50th cap in Slovenia. The Euro 2012 qualifying campaign will continue for Craigan as his team host Italy at Windsor Park in October. He have time to recover before we travel to Perth on Saturday. The other teams in Grup C are Serbia, Estonia and the Faroe Islands.
Meanwhile Murphy and Saunders will be racking up airmiles as they return from Belarus after Friday’s penultimate match in the qualifying group. The big test for the U21s will come at Pittodrie on Tuesday when Austria arrive for what is likely to be the group decider. The winners will face a play-off to reach next year’s finals.
Let’s not forget that the Scotland A team start their campaign for Euro 2012 in Lithuania on Friday before playing Lichenstein at Hampden on Tuesday. Unfortunately there are no current Motherwell players in the squad though former ‘Well player Lee McCulloch is named in Friday’s starting eleven. James McFadden will be on the bench hoping that he gets the chance to win his 47th cap.