LAST night's result doesn't look any better in the cold light of day. We had a really good chance of beating England, but, not for the first time, we came up short. Aye, I'm not happy, but, having survived 7-2 in 1955, 9-3 in 1961, 4-1 in 1969, 5-0 in 1973, 5-1 in 1975 and one of two occasions when we have snatched a draw from the jaws of victory, a 3-2 loss I can take.
But, what I cannot take is the way we lost, to two set-piece goals. England played most of the football, that we have to accept. They passed the ball better, but, like so-many English sides, Arsenal in particular, they can pass the ball around all day in front of a well-organised defence; they are not very good at passing THROUGH a well-organised back line.
I still maintain, had big Grant Handley not been off the park for treatment to a cut head, Theo Walcott would not have scored their equaliser; Handley would have come across and cut-out the threat, once he got that half-yard away from Steven Whittaker. Then, with us leading 1-0 at half-time and Kenny Miller scoring early in the second half, it's a different ball game, with the English fans on their team's back.
Then we come to the two set-piece headers. I don't expect WGS to be having to coach his squad; by the time players get to the level of the national team, I expect them to be able to trap a ball, give a pass to feet and at least have a basic level of technical ability. Some of the current squad barely meet base-line international level, but, that's not Strachan's fault, that's down to their clubs. It is far-too-easy to become a "professional" footballer in Scotland today - our clubs' standards are too-low.
What I do expect Messrs Stewart, McCall, McGhee and Strachan to be able to do, however, is come up with a cogent and workable framework for us to deal with set pieces. Have it worked-out in advance: will we man-mark or will we mark space zonally; who will mark whom; who organises our set-piece defence, the goalie or a nominated defender. It seemed to me we didn't have those basics worked-out last night.
I appreciate, Handley and Martin are the future in the centre of our defence; I am all for allowing them to grow-up and into the jerseys. BUT, against England, I might have considered Andy Webster's experience as potentially crucial, not least in the organiser's role. However, for some reason, WGS doesn't seem to rate the Hearts' man.
For the England winner, it looked to me as if Scott Brown was marking Lambert. Broonie gave a great lead, if fit, he will be our captain until, if he does, Darren Fletcher returns. But, the marker of a big, old-fashioned English target-man centre forward he never was and never will be. The obvious match-up was surely for one of the centre-backs to be on Lambert, with Charlie Mulgrew marking that man's designated target. What happened? Did we switch-off? Did we mess-up? We need to sort this out before we get conned again.
ANYWAY, the England game is history - where do we go from here? We can only hope our recent improvement continues for the remaining dead rubbers in our World Cup group. WGS now has a chance to build a squad ready for the European Championship qualifiers kicking-off in a year's time. However, what more can he and, more particularly the SFA, do to help us on our way?
For a start, while I see no point in playing an annual cup tie against England. And, having put the "Sweaties" in their place, I don't see the FA being too-bothered about regular games, even though the poor, deluded Tartan Army will, at the drop of a sporran, happily fill their coffers for them, and money does talk.
If I was WGS I'd be looking to fine-tune the short-lived Celtic Tournament against Wales and the two Irish sides. Three games against our closest neighbours could be marvellous for building squad togetherness and confidence - provided we made these games 'B', 'Futures' or 'Development' games.
All four Celtic nations have a small core of virtual ever-presents. For us, if fit: McGregor, Hutton, Brown, Morrison, Snodgrass, Maloney, Miller, the two Fletchers and Naismith have been there, done that and got the caps.
Suppose we limit our Celtic Tournament squad to three of these elite level players, plus maybe another three players who have more than five caps - the rest of the squad have to be either Under-23 or have less than five caps, or preferably both.
That way we can try new permutations, allow players to make the considerable leap from Under-21 to full internationals, but not, in the process, harm our FIFA and UEFA co-efficients.
If not the Celtic tournament, why not a North Sea Championship every spring, again for development teams. I reckon Sky or BT Sport would happily cover a Scotland v Sweden v Denmark v Holland tournament for 'Development Squads'. Such a tournament is maybe the only way Scottish players will in the short-term, learn how to play against the more technically assured Europeans. Which would be no bad thing.
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