Scotland Expected - We Would Go Out In Unfortunate Circumstances

AS I settled down to watch last night's Scotland v Spain match in the Women's European Championships, I wondered which of the four possibilities I had identified would reveal itself.

OPTION ONE: Scotland plays well, but can only win 1-0 rather than by the required two-goal margin, thus failing to qualify.

OPTION TWO: Scotland plays well, gets the necessary two-goal margin of victory, then England fail to keep their part of the bargain by failing to beat Portugal.

OPTION THREE: Scotland plays well, are cruising, 2-0 up and we give Spain a last-minute goal which eliminates us.

OPTION FOUR: Scotland rise to the occasion, get the necessary two goal lead, then control the match to cruise into the quarter-finals.

You will note the order of these options – we are Scotland, the easy option is the last resort. Long experience has taught us, there are three ways of doing things in tournament football – the easy way, the hard way and the Scotland way.

The girls last night in many ways rode their luck against a technically-superior Spanish side. I would say, a Scottish men's team, playing a Spanish men's team, would have conceded several goals -the male Spanish strikers would have put away most of the chances the Señoritas squandered last night.

Compared to the anguish wee Billy Bremner suffered in 1974

And, while it wasn't as heart-breaking as yon half-chance wee Billy Bremner stabbed past the post against Brazil back in 1974, when Leanne Crichton blasted that great chance over the bar from that corner, early in the second half, I just knew, it was going to be the same old, same old Scottish sang of so near, yet so far.

Leanne Crichton's miss last night was nothing

But, all things considered, the girls did us proud, we should applaud them. Just think, losing the likes of Kim Little and Jenni Beattie to injury was the equivalent of a Scottish squad of the time being denuded of Kenny Dalglish and Willie Miller. Had that happened back in the day, we'd have been in full Private Fraser: “We're awe doomed” mode.

Anna Signeul now departs to Finland, some of the elder stateswomen will surely bow out and Shelley Kerr will come in, with the basis of a good squad in place and hope to see Scotland kick-on from Euro 2017. Next stop the Women's World Cup ladies – you can do it.

Shelley Kerr - will hope her new charges can kick-on from Holland

Finally, now Scotland is out, I can safely ignore the Engerlund, Engerlund, Engerlund cheer-leading from Channel Four. They don't know they annoy us, they just cannot help themselves.

WELL DONE too to Aberdeen. Conceding that away goal was unfortunate, but, they take a lead to Limassol for their second leg match, while the Cypriots will be without one of their top players.

Of course, as Andy Roxburgh and Craig Brown have been telling us for the last 25-years: “There are no easy games in Europe any longer”, so, Derek McInnes will be taking nothing for granted. I am confident he can plan how the Dons will approach the second leg, and that he has the squad to make that plan work.

Mind you, both Aberdeen in Cyprus and Celtic in Norway, will doubtless give us one or two hairy moments, but, I am confident they can qualify for the next round of their respective competitions.

One would like to think, BBC Scotland or STV could get off their arses and arrange for coverage for the fans back home, but, I am not holding my breath for this.

THE A76 and A75 roads might be a wee bit busier on Saturday, because I expect Ayr United to take a half-decent support to Galabank for their Betfred Cup clash with Annan Athletic. A couple of my fellow coffin-dodgers in our little Ayr-based social circle are getting a wee bit excited at the thought of the Honest Men qualifying, top of their group, at the expense of Kilmarnock.

Ian McColl, beating Killie gave the Honest Men belief

One of them is a fanatic, following United home and away – the other, who can barely make it the half mile from his house to Somerset Park, is considering a rare excursion to an away match.

Certainly, United have kicked-on well from that morale-boosting opening match win in the Ayrshire Derby, wee Ian McColl has got the team playing well and it would be nice to see them going further in the competition.

One of the Worthies wants Rangers in the next round, but, I have accused him of wanting the easy way through and suggested he ought to seek a harder challenge for his heroes.

ELSEWHERE, some of the other final sectional games are also nicely-poised. Match of the weekend ought to be the last one – Sunday's Dundee Derby, with the near-neighbours in Tannadice Street locked together at the top of the group, each with three wins from three matches.

But, the clash of Hearts and Dunfermline, well, there's a fixture with a bit of history and the Pars, managed of course by a former Hearts Hero, will fancy they can cause an upset. This one too will be worth watching. Let's hope the fans turn out.

One thing the League Cup has always done, right from its inception at the end of World War II, is, throw-up some unlikely teams advancing. For instance, Livingston can sit back on Saturday, the idle team in their group, safe in the knowledge, they are already through to the knock-out stages, from a group in which they were expected to be make-weights. Add one or two upset results and, this competition has maybe been better than the media attention it has received.