David Marshall is the man for Scotland!

Cardiff shot-stopper David Marshall deserves to wear the gloves for Scotland.

Scotland boss Gordon Strachan must be feeling lucky. After years of Scottish goalkeepers being ridiculed in England, he can now call upon two of the most impressive goalkeepers in the Premier League.

But for me David Marshall just edges it ahead of Allan McGregor as Scotland’s No 1 at the moment.

There are plenty of outstanding shot-stoppers operating in the English top flight, but you’ll struggle to find many having a better season than the two players battling it out for the starting slot for their country.

Seriously, I can’t really think of any keepers in England that have had a better season than Marshall. And, in fairness to McGregor he isn’t a million miles behind him with some terrific displays of his own.

The one thing these two guys have is that they play for clubs at the bottom end of the table, which means they’ll be among the busiest keepers in the League, constantly in the thick of the action.

Some of the saves Marshall made during the week to keep Cardiff City in the game against Aston Villa were frightening. In fact, there was one save in particular which was as good as I’ve witnessed in a long, long time.

He had to fight to get to it but he did, and it earned his side a vital point in the relegation battle. And whenever I’ve watched McGregor in action for Hull City, he always makes a save or two that are top notch.

There isn’t a manager in the world who wouldn’t like to have two top keepers to call upon. Bizarrely enough, in recent years it’s a position Scotland always seem to have been stronger in than other areas of the team.

But at the end of the day, Gordon can only play one of them and, for me, Marshall should be the man. I think he edges it over McGregor and he has come on leaps and bounds in the last year or so.

Confidence is so important for goalkeepers, and Marshall has real presence now. You can just tell from watching him that he knows he is in a very good place and believes in himself.

The potential was always there. I remember Marshall having a tremendous game for Celtic many moons ago in the Nou Camp against Barcelona when he kept a clean-sheet. He was unbelievable that night.

Sometimes, though, you need to take a step back to take a few steps forward, and that has been the case with David. He didn’t manage to become the No.1 at Celtic so he left to join Cardiff.

Playing in the Championship and developing as a keeper has been great for him. And now he is playing in the top flight, he is well on his way to proving himself to be as good as any in England.

Strachan will have to make his own choice and it will be a difficult decision. But right now I think Marshall’s form is too spectacular not to play him for Scotland.