A Win Is A Win Is A Win

THERE IS always one question to answer when we qualify for either of the two major Football Championships – The World Cup or The European Championships; that question is: “How will we blow it this time?”

OK, we have a minimum of two further games to get through, but on the evidence of Saturday night shift, watching the TV broadcast from Boston, maybe we've exhausted the possible ways we can embarrass ourselves on the world stage, but, this being Scotland – I will not bet on that.

When it comes to The World Cup, we've been performing pratt-falls for over three-quarters of a century:

• 1950 – If we're not British Champions, we're not going

• 1954 – It's in Switzerland, Alps and skiing, so winter weight jerseys, in 30º summer temperatures and the team manager resigning mid-tournament

• 1958 – The SFA send Tommy Docherty and Archie Robertson to scout next opponents Paraguay, then totally ignore their report and lose

• 1974 – We play the worst Brazilian team ever off the park, but cannot score and we only score two goals against a poor Zaire, go through the group unbeaten, but still fail to qualify

• 1978 – Ally MacLeod fails to scout Peru, we lose; Willie Johnston fails a drugs test and is sent home, then we fail to beat Iran

• 1982 – Willie Miller and Alan Hansen collide – we're out

• 1986 – We play 88 minutes against ten-men Uruguay and cannot score

• 1990 – Costa Rica

• 1998 – We fail to beat Norway, then lose to a Moroccan team we probably under-estimated

I will not dwell on the many Disasters for Scotland we have endured in the tournaments we failed to qualify for, so, perhaps I'm being a tad unfair in refusing to cheer too-loudly after our hard-fought win over Haiti in the early hours of Sunday morning.

A win is a win is a win, and if this one was not a total minger, it was still far from braw. I fear, perhaps, it might be, as yon win over Zaire in 1974 was, a case of the group's whipping boys producing the one good performance they had in them, before being thumped by the other two teams in the group to leave us struggling.

Hopefully, this was a case of us getting our stinker performance out of the way early doors, before lifting our level for the other two games. We will need to, once again, the group draw has done us no favours, pitting us against two of the nations rated in the world's top ten.

Morocco, our next opponents, looked a very-good side, against a Brazilian team, clearly out of sorts, but, still a Brazil side. I've got the feeling, if the Samba Kings are going to go deep into this World Cup, it may be because Vinicius Jr “does a Maradona” and, as that wonderful wee man did in 1990, carries a poor team on his back all the way.

The above paragraph written, we could well rise to the challenge of facing the African Champions in our next game, or, in typical Scottish fashion, face a “Must Win” final game against Brazil and shock the world by doing just this. That's the beauty of a World Cup involving Scotland.

Let's look at the performances last night:

• Angus Gunn: Didn't have too-much to do, but one or two mishandles was the sign of a player who hasn't played too often this season. Our three goalkeepers' lack of action is still a worry.

• Aaron Hickey: Another player who hasn't played too often this season, but he coped well until he tired and was replaced by Nathan Patterson, another player a bit short of match-fitness.

• Grant Hanley: Had a good game, relatively untroubled and his experience showed.

• Jack Hendry: Also came up with a solid performance, including some crucial blocks when Haiti put us under pressure.

• Andy Robertson: A typical Robbo performance, leading from the front and getting forward at every opportunity. He has crossed better in the past

• Ben Gannon-Doak: Frustrating, he takes on opponents and beats them, but, his final ball into the box is some way short of Jimmy Johnstone or Willie Henderson class.

• Scott McTominay: Nowhere near his best form, but his class showed and he was unlucky with one shot which hit the woodwork.

• Lewis Ferguson: The glue that held our midfield together, stopped some threatening Haitian attacks at source and battled hard.

• John McGinn: Was more Pub Player McGinn than Super John, but, he got the all-important goal.

• Che Adams: Still to demonstrate he and Lawrence Shankland can play together. Kept the Haiti defence busy but had few chances near goal.

• Lawrence Shankland: Another who was a bit off his best form, but, he was always a threat and, on another night – who knows.

• Findlay Curtis, Ryan Christie, Kenny McLean: Came off the bench but failed to perhaps make the expected impact, although, none let Scotland down.

Now, we move on to the supposedly harder challenges of the world's seventh and sixth-ranked nations. Typical Scotland, we always get a Group of Death. However, and let's hope this is not false hope, on the evidence of their meeting, earlier on Saturday night/Sunday morning, we should not be shaking in our boots about facing either side.

That said, we will need to up our game considerably to get out of this group. However, those two additional points we already have over Brazil and Morocco just might come in handy.

A final thought. Once again the Tartan Army were being praised for their support and for their magnificent rendition of Flower of Scotland. For me, that's the ultimate example of Jim Sillars' 90-minute Nationalists.

All the data tells us, most of the Tartan Army members in Boston will favour Independence, but, only a little over one-third of them will support the Scottish National Party – the supposed political party driving the push for Independence. To borrow a phrase from a famous American: “Edinburgh – we have a problem!”