THE traditional cordial relations between the "home nations" may be about to be put to the test with the future of Scotland's and Northern Ireland's national teams appearing to hinge largely on what happens during 90 minutes in Basel at teatime today.

If Northern Ireland fail to overcome a 1-0 deficit from the home leg of their World Cup play-off when they travel to take on Switzerland at St Jakob-Park this evening, there may be more than a few Scots who will be quite satisfied with the outcome. And a fair number of them may be within the corridors of Hampden.

The Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has been strongly linked with the job vacated by Gordon Strachan and another exiled Northern Irishman living in Scotland, Motherwell under-20s head coach and Fir Park legend Stephen Craigan, grudgingly admits his compatriot would be the perfect fit for that vacant SFA blazer.

While O'Neill still has three years to run on his contract with the Irish Football Association, the prospect of swapping Windsor Park for Hampden Park would appear more likely should our near neighbours fail to make the party in Russia.

Craigan is a huge admirer of O’Neill and the job he has done with his green-and-white army, but he hopes the Tartan Army won’t be hailing him as their new hero any time soon.

“Michael has been terrific, there’s no doubt about it,” said Craigan. “Where the players and the team have come from since before he took over, and to be competing at such a level with such a limited number of players, is some achievement.

“Is Michael on the SFA’s radar? He probably is. Is he on the radar for club jobs? He probably is. If you are going to continually improve a set of players and take them to games and stages of tournaments no one thought possible, then people are going to sit up and take notice.

“From a selfish perspective, I certainly hope he stays on, and I’m sure the players do too. He has a great rapport with the players and the supporters, and he has massively overachieved. He deserves all the credit he is getting. I just hope he stays with Northern Ireland.

“Club chairman and associations will look for managers who have been successful at getting the most form their players, but I’m sure Michael will reflect and decide what is right for him.

“He’s still got three years left on his contract, so it’s still a bit premature to say he would walk out on Northern Ireland to take the Scotland job or any other one. Naturally, you can see why people would be interested though.

“It was back in ’82 and ’86 the last time that we had reasonable success or went to major tournaments, so that’s why he is going to be spoken about.

“Whether Scotland would be of interest to him or a big club job would, only Michael could tell you. He’s been very coy about it, and he’s tried to keep it on the backburner, because he is trying to be respectful to Northern Ireland.

“But if Scotland are looking for a manager who is proven in international football, and who has taken a team beyond their seeding in the group, then that’s why Michael is going to be mentioned.

“People may just be putting two and two together, but he’s an obvious candidate given his track record.”

Craigan was in attendance at Belfast’s Windsor Park on Thursday night, and like every other Northern Irishman present, he watched in disbelief as Romanian referee Ovidiu Hategan awarded an absurd penalty to the Swiss as a shot cannoned off Corey Evans’s shoulder in the area.

The former central defender, who won 54 caps for his country, has been part of Northern Ireland teams who have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds before though, playing in wins over Spain and England during his own international career.

Far from being daunted by the prospect of taking on the likes of Granit Xhaka and Xherdan Shaqiri again, Craigan says the players should be able to raise their game to another level by testing themselves against such talents, just as he did when facing Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres or David Villa.

And he feels that the sense of injustice lingering from the home leg of the tie can help fire his country to another historic moment tonight.

“It’s not outwith the realms of possibility that we can turn it around,” he said. “This team have earned the right to be in the play-off, and they have done it by beating teams and competing with teams that nobody would expect them to.

“When you are going in against teams with quality and looking to pull off a shock, it goes without saying that you all have to be at your best.

“Sometimes it’s the fear of actually getting smashed. That might sound silly, but the fear of losing heavily can almost make you perform better. Your focus becomes better, you get that determination and that organisation, you almost gather extra energy from somewhere, because you know if you’re not at your best, if you’re not at it, then it could be a long, long night.

“We’re a small country, and sometimes that can bring you together. Things like decisions going against you can fuel that sense of injustice, and that decision in the first leg was a huge injustice. That’s what Michael will be using in the next couple of days to try to get that one last push from every single player. That’s the mentality that the smaller teams need to have, whether that’s a club or a country.

“I would look at the names on the other team and use that to fire me up, because I knew if I wasn’t at the top of my game then I would get destroyed.

“Some people wilt under that, but others use it to make sure they are really on it. It makes you concentrate fully on every decision that you make, it almost takes your concentration to a different level.

“In the England game we won, I hardly touched the ball and came off with a headache, because I was continually thinking ‘if he moves, where do I go?’

“Thankfully it’s only 1-0 and we still have a chance. It could easily have been two or three and the game would have been away from us.”