THAT great English wordsmith Sir PG Wodehouse did not miss and hit the wall when he said: “It is never difficult to distinguish between with a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.” The aftermath of Thursday night's European Championship Qualifiers play-off semi-final win fully justifies the great writer's view.
FFS, the fact that Scotland, the 27th-ranked European footballing nation, required to win a penalty shoot-out to dispose of Israel, the 39th-ranked nation, is seen as some sort of disgrace.
Let's put that fixture into Scottish terms, using last season's final league placings. It was the equivalent of Airdrie v Queen's Park, two middling clubs, whose best days are, for the moment, behind them.
Can we please do something very un-Scottish, and try to be positive. Last night's victory was our sixth unbeaten match in a row – our best run since we strung together seven unbeaten games – D-W-D-W-W-W-D - under Gordon Strachan, between March and October, 2017.
How did that run end again? Oh yes, I remember, the SFA sacked Wee Gordon.
This century, we have played 172 full internationals. Over that time period, this is only the fourth run of six unbeaten matches we have put together. The others were the above mentioned 2017 run, a spell between September, 2013 and May, 2014, again under WGS and under Alex McLeish, between May and October, 2007.
So, consistent winning runs have not been a staple of the national team for a long, long time. The Tartan Army might have great expectations, but, is more used to purritch and auld claes.
Of course, we have never beaten Serbia, who we meet in the play-off final, but, that's not to say we will not win against them. Yes, they are a good team, full of talented players, but.
We have a fairly-settled squad, continuity of selection and the players are getting used to the formation Stevie Clarke wants them to play. Clarke now has a good idea of what is his first-choice team, with six or seven players who, if fit, will start.
David Marshall, last night established a new longevity record for Scottish international players. He has been in and around the national squad for over 16 years, and is our sixth most-capped goalkeeper. In his 37 internationals, he has only had seven clean sheets up to and including last night. It was his first “goose egg” since 2014.
We constantly complain about our defence, but, we are getting there, We have only kept a clean sheet in 54 of our 172 games this century, just over 30% of the matches, therefore, we do not have a reputation for being tight at the back.
Sure, we don't score that many goals either, but, remember, overall, since 1872, we have only ever won 43% of the international we have played, and, we are unbeaten this season and posted a 50% wins record last season.
It will be asking a lot, and will take a really good performance for us to beat the Serbians in their back yard, but, as another Great Scot said in his most-iconic film role: “Never say never.”
MORE worrying, however, for me is the long-term after-effects of Covid. This pandemic really does give us a grat chance to re-organise Scottish fitba for the better – but, I fear old habits die hard and the main focus along Hampden's sixth-floor corridor will be on preserving the status quo.
Now, Scottish rugby is in an even worse state than Scottish football. The Junta, as I like to call them, at BT Murrayfield, have decreed that the club game will shut down until January, 2021 at the earliest.
The two full-time PRO14 squads, Edinburgh and Glasgow, will continue to operate and to play their league games. These two squads, both owned incidentally by the SRU, supply the bulk of the Scotland squad.
The six FOSROC Super6 franchised clubs, all of whom receive some financial support from the governing body have like the ordinary clubs, been shut down until New Year.
Now these six clubs are semi-professional, they are, if you like, rugby's equivalent to our non-Premiership clubs. The ordinary clubs, playing in the national and regional leagues, are like our non-SPFL, junior and amateur clubs.
The SRU has shut-down its three national leagues, instead these 34 clubs will play in regionalised competitions, but, not before January.
The feeling among my rugby pals is, these regional leagues may well be around for longer than merely this season. Might it not be in the best interests of Scottish football if we re-organised:
Have fewer National leagues – go to perhaps a total of 20 “senior” clubs, perhaps organised in an American-style 'Conference” system.
Below them, have regionalised “minor leagues”
Perhaps have the clubs in these leagues allowed to have partnership deals with the 20 clubs in the two major league conferences
Along the way, football should perhaps be looking at ways of promoting Scottish talent. We could perhaps insist that each match-day squad has a majority of the players, say seven or eight of the players on the park at any one time “Scotland-qualified.”
In the minor leagues, we should maybe be insisting that the bulk of the squads be Under-23s – rather akin to the Olympic Games eligibility rules – to further encourage Scottish talent.
With the current shut-down The great minds of Scottish football had a real chance to think things through and come up with something better than what we have. But, they appear to have passed-up this chance.
What's that line again, about insanity being repeatedly doing something that hasn't worked, in the hope of a better outcome. Sounds like Scottish fitba to me.
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