Gordon Strachan hopes that Aiden McGeady will take the first step back to fitness and form when Celtic take on Villarreal in a final group E game at Celtic Park tonight that has failed to capture the imagination — Strachan’s included — in Glasgow.

With Celtic already destined to finish bottom of the group and to go out of Europe, tonight’s game is not one imbued with great significance. Some people were trying to claim yesterday that the match could prove vital to Scotland’s future Uefa co-efficient, but this is the type of subject, to paraphrase the late Willie Whitelaw, that only stirs up apathy in Glasgow pubs.

Strachan, however, did confirm that the game will afford him the opportunity to try out certain things, and foremost among these will be McGeady’s return to full first-team action after a troubled two months with tendinitis. The Ireland winger came on as a substitute in the defeat by Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday, but will finally start again for Celtic against the Spanish team.

McGeady is keen to get back playing again, though any hopes of reaching the captivating form that he showed last season have already been dashed by injuries. “Aiden was doing fine and playing good stuff for us earlier in the season but then he just got an injury out of nothing,” Strachan said. “He was not playing badly at all, he was working hard, creating chances, and giving problems to other teams.

“I thought he did well the other day, he showed some life and always wants to play football. It is very hard for him to keep the same standard of last season, because that was player-of-the-year standard, but he was playing fine.

“So we’ll see how he goes against Villarreal. He is not at his 100 per cent best but he is too fit to be unfit, if you see what I mean.”

The Celtic manager joked about the flat atmosphere in the build-up to the game, claiming last night that “there’s not a lot to talk about”. Yet Strachan was keen to assert that Celtic’s group E adventure — five games played, three losses, two draws, and only two goals scored — had not been the calamity that some people have made it out to be.

“Padraig Harrington won two majors this year,” Strachan said. “If he doesn’t win two next year, is he going to top himself? I don’t think so. We’ve twice before reached the last 16, but we were balanced in our thoughts about that, so we’re not going to be too depressed about this.

“To be fair, I know the general consensus is that there is a mass depression out there, but is that not the case with the west of Scotland anyway.

Strachan said that despite their defeats away to Villarreal and to Aalborg, the team had given two of their best performances on their travels. “We feel we deserve more points from our performances in the group,” he said. “Maybe we could have got more breaks than we’ve had — after the way we played most people couldn’t believe we actually lost in Aalborg — but that’s how it goes.”

Meanwhile, on the more pressing issue of his players’ public morality — let alone wellbeing — Strachan confirmed that he has introduced stringent rules about his squad’s night-time activities. Neil Lennon and McGeady are two Celtic figures who have suffered assaults during late-night visits to the centre of Glasgow this season, causing Strachan to impose a player curfew on the city’s pubs and nightclubs.

“As long as I am here these are the guidelines,” Strachan said. “I would like to think they are guidelines rather than rules, because I think it is what is best.

“It’s not about me, because I don’t get out. If they want, the players can come round and watch telly with me.”