THE run-up to any cup final is always a nervous time for players - even for those fortunate few considered mainstays of a team.

On the back of the Scottish Cup flop at Paisley, the uncertainty over who Gordon Strachan will select for Sunday's Co-operative Insurance League Cup Final will ensure everyone at the shell-shocked club will endure an anxious wait until the line-up is announced.

The limited options open to Strachan will ride to the rescue of several players whose form of late has not been up to the mark.

Injury to several contenders - including Shaun Maloney, Barry Robson, Mark Wilson, Lee Naylor and Koki Mizuno -plus the ineligibility of Willo Flood, means it will be a case of shuffling the pack rather than chucking in his hand.

But this week at Lennoxtown, every player will be given due consideration by Strachan and his backroom staff, who have spent the time since the final whistle at New St Mirren Park hammering home the point that what was delivered on Saturday simply doesn't cut it with them.

Strachan will check to gauge the reaction is a positive one. Hurt and disappointment have to be transformed into hunger and determination.

The timing of the League Cup Final affords a quick chance for atonement. But Strachan concedes that, in terms of preparation for such a big game, losing a cup-tie to St Mirren - and any hope of a Treble - is not in the manager's manual.

He said: "No, it is not the kind of result and performance you would want before a final. But everyone usually says that, when it's an Old Firm game, you can throw form out of the window.

"We would not want to dismiss all of our recent form because, in the three games prior to Saturday's defeat, it was decent.

"However, as a manager, you tend to remember only that most recent performance, and what happened against St Mirren is still what's in my mind.

"I will sit down over the next few days and think back to the previous performances. But not at the moment."

The Paisley pain is still too raw. The manager can only hope his players feel it too.

If not, the changes will be swift and more sweeping than any boss would want to have to enforce ahead of such an important match.

Old Firm finals are always key affairs. When both sides are taking time out from a neck-and-neck championship race to determine the destiny of the first silverware of the season, the psychological bonus is even more pronounced.

Getting into the minds of his own players is all that concerns Strachan for now. He wants to know who has reacted in a positive way to the flak which has flown since Saturday's capitulation, and who has simply pulled down the shutters and refused to accept they could have done better.

Waiting in the wings are the players only too willing to step into the breach, if the manager decides some have had their chance for now.

The problem for Strachan is that he is currently denied several players who could allow him to inject the extra creativity or pace which could have made all the difference.

His options are, on the whole, limited to like-for-like switches and he conceded: "We have a lot of the players who can pick out passes unavailable. And there are a lot of our pace players missing also.

"But I don't think that was the problem against St Mirren because Saturday was not particularly a day all about picking out passes. It was a case of, Here we go, get the working gear on'."

Not enough sleeves were rolled up, not enough players were prepared to do the dirty jobs that cup-ties often require.

The repercussions could be felt as early as this weekend, and they could be long-lasting.

Celtic can't afford the luxury of carrying fair-weather players. They must be men for all seasons.

"What some players have done is put themselves in the spotlight when it comes to playing games like Saturday's again," revealed Strachan.

"It will be a case of, I remember you there: I remember how you played at that place: I remember you when the going got tough.' If that is a common denominator in their perfor-mances, then we have to think about it."

Strachan can only hope everyone connected with the club will be sporting a sunnier disposition after this weekend's final.

Victory would not completely blow away the bitter memories of Saturday's defeat, but Strachan accepted: "I think it would make you feel a bit better.

"Then it would be a case of having to push on from there for the remaining games in the season."