Craig Levein has decided to hand the armband to Kenny Miller for Wednesday night’s match at the Aviva Stadium, with the striker enjoying a fantastic season in front of goal.

Miller has recently left Rangers for Trabzonspor, although he will be leading the team out in Dublin as Scotland look to make a winning start in the Carling Nations Cup.

Levein has been having a tough time of things as manager of the national team, with defeats against Czech Republic and Spain making the prospect of qualifying for Euro 2012 a remote one. He hopes that this occasion will bring out the best in his team.

“It goes back to the idea of the Home Internationals, which had a competitive element,” Craig Levein said. “This will be akin to a competitive match and that is important to us. There’s every likelihood we’d have been playing a friendly in February in any case.”

Nigel Worthington will send out a patched-up team for the contest after no less than seven of his original squad have been forced to pull out and that includes captain Aaron Hughes and Kyle Lafferty.

“I’m delighted that the organisers have been able to put this competition together — I think the players would prefer this to maybe some of the friendlies that are organised for them over the years” said Worthington.

“I expect there to be a real competitive edge to the game, players will know each other from either playing at the same club or in the same league — nobody will want to lose.”