It was Vogts who handed the Wigan midfielder, 28, his first Scotland cap in the 1-1 draw in Moldova in 2004, the game which signalled the end of the German's reign.

Even so, that night was enough for McCulloch to understand exactly how it feels to hit rock bottom and he knows the other survivors of the Vogts era will do everything in their power to avoid a repeat of those dark days.

Scotland head into tonight's qualifier against Georgia at Hampden a transformed nation thanks to Vogts' successor Walter Smith; joint top of the group and riding high in their highest ever FIFA ranking of 16th.

And - as Alex McLeish prepares to take charge of the national team for the first time - McCulloch is confident the good times are here to stay.

"The rough patch has made a lot of the players stronger," he said.

"We're going well at the moment, the FIFA rankings will tell you that.

"But the main thing is to get a win.

"It's not the exact same squad but the people who were there before know what it's like to go through a tough spell.

"We don't want to go through that again so we won't take our foot off the pedal and we will keep going."

Scotland welcome Georgia to the national stadium in the unique position of being hot favourites to win the game.

While Georgia have lost their last three qualifiers, the Scots have stormed to the top of Group B, largely thanks to a stunning win over France at Hampden in October.

The Tartan Army are now expecting a similar outcome when Klaus Toppmoller's men come calling.

And, even though McCulloch was keen to urge caution, he admits the players are also unwilling to settle for anything less than a victory, with a crucial qualifier against Italy just four days later.

"We've watched the videos of Georgia and they are a very good team, with some great players," he said.

"The expectation levels are massive now but we know it's going to be hard and it's up to us to get a win.

"We've touched on some of their players in the meetings so we know what we've got to do and hopefully it will all work out.

"We know it's going to be a tough game but as long as we apply ourselves properly, and start the game right, we're more than capable.

"If we start the game well, at a high tempo, we'll give the crowd a lift and they will give us a lift.

"They may have to be patient but it's up to us to get the first goal.

"Right now, we wouldn't take anything less than three points."