We Won The Battles But We Are Doomed To Lose The War

JUST what,exactly, are we to make of Tuesday night's international results? Scotland, in spite of by all accounts being second-best for most of the game, made it two wins in a row by beating Denmark, while the Dutch went to Wembley and burst England's post-Germany bubble. Discuss.

My snap judgement is, this proves that England, when shorn of most of their big names will struggle, while the result from Hampden confirms, we have a long way still to go, before we are back to being a significant international force.

As regards the England game, making such a play of honouring the late Johan Cruyff was always going to risk playing into Dutch hands. The men in orange (or to be exact blue on Tuesday) had a bad Euros qualifying campaign - shit happens. But, the Dutch belief in teaching core skills and technical excellence means, while results may vary, there is always the basis of a good team in there (form is transient - class is permanent as they say).

There is not the same demand for good core skills in these islands, although, experienced coaches assure me there is greater emphasis on this in England than up here. Thus, any British team, minus its very best players, will struggle against the technically-better continentals - this happened on Tuesday.

Perhaps, had Denmark had a Laudrup (Michael or Brian) on the park on Tuesday, they could have put away the chances they created, who knows.

One thing we do know - Scotland has three very good goalkeepers, with Craig Gordon, like Allan McGregor in Prague, making the big saves when they mattered. As yet, they are fighting for the Numbr Two goalkeeping spot behind the currently indisposed David Marshall.

Further forward, we are still struggling for quality, and I don't see what the SFA's management system, such as we have one, for the international team, will help.

I have long argued, we do not have a workable system for developing international players. There is no visible means of bringing our promising Under-21 players through, ready for the sterner demands of the full team. Just take Paul Caddis, a squad member on Tuesday. He won the first of his 13 Under-21 caps in 2008, as a Celtic fringe player, then all but vanished - to Swindon, then Birmingham City, before being capped, via a two minute-cameo, in Prague last Thursday. In the eight years since making his Under-20 bow, as a 20-year-old, his international career has all but stalled.

Paul Caddis

Is he really the answer, I fear he may go down as a "One-cap wonder", having had one of the shortest Scotland careers on record. It is not as if, since leaving Celtic as a youngster, he has picked-up lots of experience of international football at club level - he has simply not "trained-on" or been given the opportunity to transfer his youthful promise to becoming a Scotland regular.

I am not, by the way, having a go at Caddis - he is the victim of a flawed system at Scotland level. Back in the early 1950s, after the shambles of our no-go World Cup campaign on 1950, Sir George Graham, the SFA Secretary of the time, and a man who was a power in the world game in those admittedly very different times, persuaded his councillors to look to the future.

In 1951 we began to play B internationals, as a means of bringing-through more players. Then, in 1954-55, just as Graham looked to retire, we began to play Under-23 internationals. I get the impression, however, "the blazers" never really bought into this, because we have over the years, seen fewer and fewer of our age-group players go on to have good international careers.

Scotland's first B team, against France, in Toulouse, on 11 November, 1952 was: Tommy Ledgerwood (Partick Thistle), Bobby Parker (Hearts) Willie Cunningham, Tommy Docherty (both Preston North End), Jimmy Davidson (Partick Thistle), Hugh Kelly (Blackpool), Jimmy Buchanan (Clyde), Willie Moir (Bolton Wanderers), Willie Gardiner (East Fife), Tommy Gemmell (St Mirren) and Willie Ormond (Hibs).

Tommy Docherty in his Preston North End days

Docherty, Kelly and Moir had already been capped prior to that match, which finished 0-0. B international protocol allowed players who had won one, or two caps to play. Cunningham, Davidson, Gemmell and Ormond would all go on to be capped within the following three years.

Under-23 internationals began on 8 February, 1955, with a 6-0 Shawfield trouncing from England. That unfortunate Scotland team was: Willie Duff (Hearts), Alex Parker (Falkirk), Eric Caldow (Rngers), Dave Mackay (Hearts), Doug Baillie (Airdrie), Bobby Holmes (St Mirren), Graham Leggat (Aberdeen), Jim Walsh (Celtic), Alex Hill (Clyde), Bobby Wishart (Aberdeen), Davie McParland (Partick Thistle). \Parker, Caldow, Mackay and Leggat woud all go on to become full caps - Parker at the end of that season, Leggat the following year and Caldow and Mackay in 1957.

Rangers' Eric Caldow

In 1956 age group games changed again, with the age limit coming down to Under-21. The first Scotland Under-21 team was: Bobby Clark (Aberdeen), George Burley (Ipswich), Arthur Albiston (Manchester United), Pat Stanton (Hibs), Tommy Burns (Celtic), John Wark (Ipswich), David McNiven (Leeds United) sub Davie Provan (Kilmarnock), David Narey (Dundee United) sub Les Muir (Hibs), Paul Sturrock (Dundee United).

Tommy Burns of Celtic

Goalkeeper Bobby Clark and Pat Stanton were the two already capped over-age players who were allowed to play. Burley, Albiston, Burns, Wark, Provan, Narey and Sturrock all went on to win full caps, indeed, two of them, Burley and Burns would go on to manage Scotland. None of these players had, like Caddis, to wait eight years for their full caps.

I do not think we will see these numbers of players from the Under-21 team which beat Northern Ireland on going on to win full caps, while I would wager, those who do step up, will have a longer wait for the big cap than those players from the 1950s and 1970s.

Of course, the SFA has never, in spite of the efforts outlined above, really done development. Back in 1967 - THE annus mirabilis of Scottish football: Celtic - European Champions; Rangers - Cup-Winners Cup Finalists; Kilmarnock - Fairs-Cup semi-finalists; World Champions England cuffed at Wembley; Scotland - European Amateur Champions, lest we forget, the SFA sent a "Development Squad" around the world. Along the way, they beat Israel, Hong Kong, Australia - three times and Canada.

When he was plain Alex Ferguson - football player

A certain Alex Ferguson scored six goals in appearing in five of these "internationals", while Joe Harper, then of Huddersfield Town, scored five in a 7-2 demolition of Canada. Twelve of the 19 players used were already, or would become full Scotland caps.

Alex Ferguson, in spite of an goal-scoring record in "international" matches which puts him alongside Hughie Gallacher in terms of goals per game, was never capped. Therefore, Paul Caddis's international record, and no harm to him for it, is actually better than Alex Ferguson's.