Carling Nations Cup: Scotland v Northern Ireland
Venue: Aviva Stadium Date: Wednesday, 9 February Kick-off: 1945 GMT
Coverage: BBC Sport Scotland website, BBC Radio Scotland 810 MW

By Alasdair Lamont

Scotland assistant manager Peter Houston believes the increasing number of Scots playing at a high level can only benefit the national team.

Three of the scorers in Sunday's Old Firm game were Scotland internationals.

And Kenny Miller has continued his goalscoring form since moving from Rangers to Bursaspor.

Houston added: "They say the English Premier League is the best in the world and the number playing regularly (there) is a boost to the squad."

Eight of those still in Craig Levein's squad for Wednesday's match against Northern Ireland could be considered first-team players in the EPL, with Darren Fletcher of Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion's Graham Dorrans having withdrawn.

If we can keep this group together for quite a while, I think the future is very bright indeed Peter Houston

Added to that, Danny Wilson has featured for Liverpool this season, while Grant Hanley has begun to establish himself at the heart of the Blackburn Rovers defence.

While in recent times Scotland managers have had to draw upon players from the English Championship, Levein has only one - Leeds United's Robert Snodgrass.

"We used to have a lot of Anglo-Scots and all playing at a good level in England. We're getting back to that stage with Morrison and Dorrans and these lads playing Premiership football," added Houston.

"We're now getting a group of players playing at the highest level of football. If we can keep this group together for quite a while, I think the future is very bright indeed."

Houston believes that might be down to the cyclical nature of producing high-quality players, but also credits the manager.

"We're finding players. I think Craig and (chief scout) Michael Oliver have done a fine job in getting guys like (English-born) Phil Bardsley."

One player likely to feature against Northern Ireland is Charlie Adam, who is not only playing in the EPL, but was one of the most in-demand players during the January transfer window, an indication of the standard of his performances.

"You look at Charlie Adam going down, first of all, to the English Championship and dominating play, his use of the ball, his wide-range of passing and he's come into the Premiership where Blackpool have been a revelation," Houston enthused.

"Paramount in that play has been Charlie Adam because if you're getting Liverpool and Tottenham and teams like that wanting to take him to their football clubs, it tells you how well he's playing.

"We saw it against the Faroe Islands for an hour where Charlie took control of the game. That has given him great confidence and his confidence should be extremely high, knowing that his stock has risen dramatically over the past year and a half.

"The people that can benefit is Scotland. If he can produce performances like that in international matches, and indeed he had a great spell when he came on against Spain.

"If we can get that for the Scotland national side, again, with this group of players, the future, in my opinion looks rosy."

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