TOMMY WILSON is a Scotland football head coach in the rare and privileged position of having to think up trivial and mundane things to keep his players occupied for the best part of a month.

As well as graft on the training pitch, the Scotland Under-20 coach - along with team manager Archie Gemmill - has been organising cinema trips to see films such as Ocean's 13, time off to go shopping, and selecting evening meals away from the hotel in his attempts to get Scotland's top teenage talents to be at their bestfor the upcoming Fifa Under-20 World Cup tournament, which begins in Canada on Saturday.

At least Wilson doesn't envisage having too many Wags to contend with. "The families have travelled before to some of the events we have been involved in," Wilson said.

"When they turn up at the hotel we just give them time to spend with them and to be fair to the families they don't intrude too much. At the age they are at it is more the parents that come rather than the wives and girlfriends."

Not that some of this age group aren't already celebrities. The lack of a World Cup or European Championship this summer, coupled with the prestige gained by last summer's thrilling run to last year's Under-19 European Championship final in Poland, and the fact many of the squad are first team regulars, all means the Scotland team that travels to Canada are well known. With more than half a million tickets alreadysold for the event, satisfying the expectations of the press pack and the public brings its own list of pressures.

"I remember one time when I was with the group before we played Germany in Germany, and drew 1-1," Wilson said. "That was Stevie Naismith and these guys, so it was a fantastic result. We got back and there was about quarter of an inch in the newspapers. But I think the results the players have achieved in this squad have started to gather momentum. It puts a bit more pressure on us but if you want to perform at the highest level you have to accept that."

Still, some downplaying of expectations seems sensible. Sure, the players are a year older and many have had plenty of first-team football since Scotland's run to the final in Poland, but an entire midfield - Celtic's Charlie Grant and Simon Ferry, and Dundee United's Greg Cameron - have been wiped out through injury.

Scotland's opponents in the group stages are at best an unknown quantity, and at worst seriously formidable. Japan are always technically gifted and are already in the middle of their season, Nigeria can be expected to outmatch the Scots at least in athleticism, and even players who were just two or three years old in the summer of 1990 should not rule out Costa Rica.

"We are a strong team without having a group of outstanding individuals like some of the other teams have," said Wilson, underlining how big an achievement it was to qualify ahead ofFrance, Netherlands, Germany and England.

"Also we're a wee bit of an unknown quantity in terms of going in against teams from other continents, which is something we haven't done before - not even in friendlies.

"Our game is less technical than theirs, and more reliant on physical strength, but I think we are getting close in terms of technical ability because we are playing more short-sided games."

Wilson can get back to playing a more strategic role in such matters soon enough anyway.

The former St Mirren player, who has graduated through the SFA's football development offices, formally ends his association with the SFA after the tournament to concentrate on bringing through the youths at Murray Park. "Rangers kindly agreed to let me do this until the World Cup is over, and to be fair the job here is pretty big," Wilson said. "So to be fair to them I will stop after the World Cup, although I will miss it."

Rangers won the league and cup double at Under-19 level under his watch, but the only actual Murray Park player he has called upon is right-back Alan Lowing, who missed out on the trip to Poland last summer due to injury. "I got told by Rangers that they had asked me to go up, but obviously I was injured at the time," Lowing said.

"But I saw them going further and further and kept getting more gutted. Tommy knows what I can do, he sees me every day and it is good to know that somebody thinks that way."

As well as the usual suspects of Brazil and Argentina, Wilson saw enough of Spain in the final last summer to know they are contenders.

"We got invited to a Uefa conference to do a presentation on our performance in the final and how we prepared against each other," Wilson said. "It was really interesting to know what they thought of us and what we thought of them."

With this group of players, Scotland might just give them all something else to think about this summer.

Goalkeepers: Scott Fox (Celtic); Greg Kelly (Aberdeen); Andrew McNeil (Hibs).

Defenders: Andrew Cave-Brown (Norwich City); Andrew Considine (Aberdeen); Scott Cuthbert (Celtic); Garry Kenneth (Dundee United); Alan Lowing (Rangers); Ryan O'Leary (Kilmarnock); Mark Reynolds (Motherwell); Lee Wallace (Hearts).

Midfielders: Jamie Adams (Kilmarnock); Ryan Conroy (Celtic); Brian Gilmour (Clyde); Sean Lynch (Hibs); Michael McGlinchey (Celtic).

Forwards: Ross Campbell (Hibs); Graham Dorrans (Livingston); Calum Elliot (Hearts); Steven Fletcher (Hibs); Robert Snodgrass (Livingston).