Scotland - the roller-coaster fitba nation

COMING slowly out of Commonwealth Games mode back into fitba mode has not been easy, but, I'm trying.

Like the majority of the population, I was somewhat dreading Friday night's game in Prague. All Craig Levein's pre-match comments were decidedly defensive and had me worried. These worries increased markedly once it became obvious that we were about to use that ridiculous 4-6 formation and when play actually began, oh dear!

I must admit, I felt like switching-off the TV after ten minutes. By then it was obvious that the Czechs weren't much good, and we were still not going to have a go at a team which was decidedly beatable.

In the end, the performance was worse than in the Iran game in 1978, hitherto my benchmark for how bad Scotland can be. Woeful.

Then, from the depths of despair, came some kind of recovery, in the way we battled back from 0-2 down to pull level with Spain, before, typically Scottish, an individual error saw us beaten.

The performances over the two games beggar the question - why did we hand the initiative to a beatable team, then have a go at a team which, on current form, will beat us 99 times out of 100?

I accept, that if you're playing an (on paper) better team, it makes sense to have a go, to make things hard for them; because if you sit back and defend, you're playing into their hands.

But, I cannot acccept the same tactics against a team which is, at the very least of a similar standard to you. If Craig Levein genuinely thought the Czechs were better than us, then he ought to resign. All the evidence over recent internationals showed them to be living off past reputations and to be there for the taking - except we didn't even try.

I've never been one to blame all of Scottish football's many ills on 'the Largs Mafia'. It's not as if Andy Roxburgh, Craig Brown and Co get our would-be coaches down there and brain wash them into thinking: "defence, defence, defence": "don't attack" "keep it tight at all times" - to think that is to misunderstand what they do there.

The Largs experience is all about teaching coaches how to coach, to pass on good habits, to make good players better. It's not about telling the students: "this is the only way to play football".

The problem is, once they go back to their clubs - the coaches are free to do what they feel is the best thing, with the players they've got, to get results and keep themselves in a job.

It's all about if not winning, then surviving - so there is no incentive to take risks, to be positive and to have a go; because to have a go, is the risky option which leads to the sack.

Our football is dominated by the fear factor, the players don't know how to play without fear of losing, of being dropped, of failure - and until we take away the fear factor, we will struggle.

Another thing is, the international team is an after-thought. Our game is structured around the clubs and keeping them sweet. We don't appear to have a proper structure which allows the international team to have precedence over the clubs and until we do, we'll be on the outside looking in, at the big tournaments.