I CAN vaguely remember watching Scotland being gubbed 7-0 by Uruguay, the full calamity brought to us via Eurovision to “enjoy” on our 12-inch screen, black-and-white televisions, back on 19 June, 1954. So when it comes to “Disaster for Scotland' as dear old David Francey used to say, well I've suffered more than most.
So, there will be no wailing and gnashing of teeth chez Socrates; been there, done that, got too-many DVDs to count in my 'Epic Scotland Failures' file. I will say, however, I got it wrong – I fancied us to court universal unpopularity by beating the Ukrainians, before blowing the whole World Cup deal with another Cardiff calamity.
Ach! Anyway, what would a nation of freckle-faced gingers want with November in Qatar? NHS Scotland is stretched enough, without dealing with the fall-out of that little trip.
We need someone to blame, so, step forward Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, if he could have kept his Stalin complex under control for a few months, then the game might have been played when first scheduled, and we might have won. As it transpired, the delay did us no favours, and enabled our opponents to properly prepare to take us apart.
If, as might happen, and we are en route to World War III, my only hope is that the Royal Regiment of Scotland takes the Kremlin, the war time equivalent of winning a penalty shoot-out, to end the thing.
I bailed-out at half time last night. I already had that hopeless feeling after a dire first half. Let's hope we can quickly re-group, get through the Nations Cup qualifiers and make a real fist of qualifying for the 2024 Euros.
My faith in Stevie Clarke is in no way diminished, I stilll believe he's our best managerial hope. What I would like to see from him is, in the upcoming matches, a start to the changing of the guard as regards the Scotland team.
We now have a fairly-settled squad, who are familiar with each other, the system and what they need to do. However, in the next few games, we need to get some of the fringe players more involved.
Look at the goalkeeping situation. First-choice Craig Gordon is 40, second-choice David Marshall is 37. Gordon has 67 caps, Marshall has 47. Assuming he inherits the Rangers' goalkeeper's shirt from Allan McGregor, Jon McLaughlin will probably be heir presumptive to the Scotland role, except, he's now 34 and only has two caps.
The next taxis off the rank are St Johnstone's Zander Clark and Motherwell's Liam Kelly. They have been squad regulars for a wee while now, but neither Clark (30 later this month) nor Kelly, (who is 26) has as yet been capped. Getting a young goalkeeper in there and blooded has to be a priority for Clarke.
Received wisdom is, when putting together a winning team, you start with the 'spine' of the side: goalkeeper – centre-half, central midfielder, striker. OK, I've dealt with the goalkeeping situation, in central defence, the main man is Grant Hanely. He's a wee bit like a 21st century Ronnie McKinnon. He's under-rated, he's not showy, but, he's seldom let Scotland down and is nearing a 50th cap and a place in the SFA Roll of Honour. However, he's now 30, his club has just been relegated and while Clarke doesn't consider playing in England's Championship as grounds for not playing also for Scotland, well, Hanley's time may be drawing to a close.
I suspect, should be establish himself at the heart of the Rangers' defence in the new season, John Souttar will add to his Scotland caps, while promotion to the English Premiership for Nottingham Forest will not harm Scott McKenna's chances of adding to his current 23 Scotland caps.
In midfield, Billy Gilmour really needs to be playing regularly for Chelsea, or somewhere else in the top half of the Premiership, if he is to become the player we all feel he can be for Scotland, while, up front, we need to find a consistent striker – but, that has long been a Scotland problem.
OK, losing to Ukraine wasn't the result we wanted; it means another World Cup without Scotland and the Tartan Army. But, let's heed the wise words of our National Team Manager.
We feel sorry for ourselves today, then, we re-group and go again. We've got two games against Armenia and one against the Republic of Ireland. We have a squad capable of winning all three, so, by the time football shuts down mid-month, we ought to be feeling a lot better about ourselves and our place in the world.
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