WHEN Stuart Armstrong speaks about the merits of testing himself against the very best football has to offer he is one man who cannot be accused of failing to practice what he preaches. The 26-year-old midfielder could quite happily have ticked along as part of Celtic’s all-conquering side, but instead chose to take himself out of that comfort zone this summer to see if he could cut it in the Barclays Premier League with Southampton. It is the kind of bravery which hopefully will lead to further personal development, even if – a bit like Scotland against Belgium at Hampden on Friday night – there are a few rude awakenings along the way.

“It’s always nice to challenge ourselves against these top sides, but we shouldn’t forget they are top sides for a reason,” said Armstrong. “They had an excellent World Cup, but we are a relatively new squad and are still trying to find our way.

“You could say I’m up against a Belgium every week down there!” he added. “That’s part of the attraction of going to the Premier League. It’s testing yourself against the best. That’s the only way you can improve - training and competing against the best every week.”

It would be easy to be spooked by the 4-0 reverse to the Belgians on Friday night – our heaviest home defeat for 45 years – and conclude that Alex McLeish’s short passing game based on a ball-playing back three should be disregarded for a more conservative tactical approach. At least three of Belgium’s four goals on Friday night, after all, sprung directly from gifts to the opposition.

But Armstrong feels Scotland are building something of merit with this group of players and this game style. With himself, John Souttar, Johnny Russell and new captain Andy Robertson involved, it is a style with a strong former Dundee United influence.

“It’s a new style of play,” said Armstrong. “Everyone wants to play attractive football and there’s always going to be little mistakes.

“But there’s encouragement in perseverance,” he added. “It’s a young team and we want to play this way. It helps when teams are used to playing together. When they are thrown in, they don’t know what to expect from each other and it’s more difficult. The more time we spend together it’s obviously going to help us.

“Winning games and playing entertaining football attracts fans,” he added. “That’s something we are trying to build. We want to develop attractive, attacking football but it has to go somewhere. The more we build the more attractive football we’ll produce, and that’s what the fans want to see.

“The fans can expect a different Scotland side on Monday,” he said. “It’s two completely different games. It was a disappointing night on Friday but ultimately it’s a friendly and it’s all about Albania. This is the one we are looking forward to, hopefully we can put in a good performance and we can get the win.”